Chris Miller, author of “Chip War,” says China’s spending on semiconductors and AI infrastructure suggests Beijing does not share the same sense of urgency around artificial general intelligence, or AGI, that is driving investment across the United States.
“If you thought AI was important and chips were an important ingredient, China’s been underspending for the last four years on AI,” Miller said during a Tuesday episode of TBPN. “The Chinese government just doesn’t really believe that AI is going to be nearly as important as we do.”
While responding to reports that China is preparing a roughly $295 billion nationwide AI investment plan, Miller noted that the figure is spread over five years, making annual spending lower than the capital expenditures of leading U.S. cloud and AI companies. "The puzzle is why isn't Xi Jinping more AGI-pilled?" he added.
Beijing Still Not ‘AGI-Pilled’
When asked about China’s reception of American and Western GPUs, the geopolitical technology expert said Chinese firms have still not purchased Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) H200s despite the Trump administration permitting sales for roughly six months.
He said Beijing is pushing firms toward Huawei’s domestic chip ecosystem, citing possible data security concerns and fears of backdoors in foreign hardware.
The reported AI investment plan follows April data indicating China's chip exports rose to a record $31 billion, roughly doubling year over year.
Semiconductor Spend Doubled
In his appearance, Miller also stated semiconductor spending as a share of GDP was roughly flat for two decades before nearly doubling over the past four years, driven entirely by AI demand. He noted that the industry remains constrained by manufacturing capacity, particularly at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM), as well as bottlenecks in advanced packaging and related supply-chain segments. The dynamic has been described as a “bullwhip effect,” where demand fluctuations amplify further down the supply chain.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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