Artificial Analysis finds Chinese AI models lag US rivals by months, not years

Artificial Analysis, an AI benchmarking platform, reports that leading Chinese models now trail their American counterparts by just three to nine months, a gap that was well over a year not long ago. CEO Micah Hill-Smith says his firm’s data confirms this narrowing even after the release of breakthrough models from both sides. DeepSeek closes the gap The headline performer on China’s side is DeepSeek. As of May 2025, the company’s R1 0528 model tied for the world’s second-ranked lab overall, making it the clear leader among Chinese AI developers. On the American side, OpenAI’s o3 model still holds the top spot. Chinese large language models surged from 3% to 13% of global market share within a two-month window, according to Artificial Analysis’s Q2 2025 State of AI report. American models still dominate by raw usage, capturing roughly 93% of LLM site visits as of August 2025. DeepSeek reportedly trained its V3 model for approximately $5.6 million, achieving this through optimized hardware and software co-design. Why crypto cares about AI benchmarks AI-related digital asset prices dipped following the release of DeepSeek’s competitive models. In one trading competition, DeepSeek’s C...