China Mobile's self-developed robot dogs and humanoid robot dance at the company's booth during the 2025 World AI Conference in east China's Shanghai, July 27, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Haoming)

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman warned that the US may be underestimating the complexity and scale of China's progress in artificial intelligence (AI), and said export controls are unlikely to be a reliable solution, CNBC reported on Monday (US time).

A Chinese expert said that the remarks reflect the deepening anxiety over competition felt by some US tech giants in the face of China's rapid AI advancements and other technologies despite Washington's suppression efforts.

"I'm worried about China," Altman said in an interview with a group of reporters in San Francisco. The CEO warned that the US-China AI race is deeply entangled - and more consequential than a simple scoreboard of who is ahead, according to CNBC.

"There's inference capacity, where China probably can build faster. There's research, there's product; a lot of layers to the whole thing," Altman was quoted as saying. "I don't think it'll be as simple as: Is the US or China ahead?"

Despite escalating US export controls on semiconductors, Altman is unconvinced that the policy is keeping pace with technical realities, according to CNBC. Asked whether it would be reassuring if fewer GPUs were reaching China, Altman said that "my instinct is that doesn't work."

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times that the remarks made by Altman not only gave a "sober and more realistic" account on the current state of AI competition between the two countries from a technical and industrial viewpoint but also revealed the growing anxiousness of OpenAI and other US tech companies on the rapid rise of Chinese AI companies.

"Different from opinions held by some US officials and financial moguls, which tend to oversimplify the nature of this competition down to computing power and eventually to the control of chips, the remarks by Altman acknowledged the multiple dimensions of AI competition," Xiang said.

Altman is taking a holistic view of the AI competition, from how data is gathered, stored, transmitted, processed, to algorithms and terminal devices, which include PCs and smartphones but also encompass robots, drones, intelligent and connected vehicles and smart manufacturing, Xiang said.

The remarks by Altman are one of the latest from the US commenting on the competition landscape between the US and China in the field of AI.

In June, White House AI czar David Sacks reportedly said that China is only "months" behind the US in AI. In May, at a US Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Altman himself acknowledged that the US is barely ahead of China in the AI race.

Remarks by Altman also reinforced the notion held by some in the US to curb China's AI development through putting controls on chips is hardly viable, noted Xiang.

At a press conference on August 14, Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, highlighted China's notable strides in digital technologies during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

The AI sector has seen comprehensive advancement, Liu said, with China accounting for 60 percent of global AI patents and achieving breakthroughs in humanoid robots and intelligent hardware. Also, China's computational power now ranks second in the world, providing robust support for economic and social development, the official said.

China has long opposed the US' abuse of export controls on chips and other high-tech components.

"China's position on opposing the politicization and weaponization of tech and trade issues, and on malicious blockade and suppression against China, is consistent and clear. Such practices disrupt the stability of global industrial and supply chains and are in no one's interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said on August 11, in response to a question about US export controls on high-bandwidth memory AI chips.