Big Shots Weigh In: US vs. China AI Smackdown

Tech’s heavy hitters—Marc Benioff, Ray Dalio, Joe Tsai—threw down at CNBC’s Singapore bash last week, chewing over the US-China AI brawl. It’s a slugfest—Big Tech’s cash piles versus scrappy Chinese upstarts—and the room’s buzzing.

Salesforce’s Benioff landed the first jab, calling out Silicon Valley’s “hypnosis” over data centers and AI training. Billions poured into server farms, and for what? China’s DeepSeek R1—a lean, mean, open-source beast—punches above its weight, built cheap while US giants drown in hardware bills. “Rethink it,” Benioff barked. “What’s the point of this cash bonfire?” He’s been slamming Big Tech’s spend-fest for ages—now he’s got a Chinese poster child to wave.

Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio played ref, cool as ever. US still edges out China in chip design—those precious silicon brains—but it’s tight. “China’s behind, but not by much,” he said. Where they shine? Using AI—turning code into cash while America’s still sketching blueprints. Dalio’s not sweating DeepSeek 2025 yet, but he’s watching.

Joe Tsai, cofounder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, though, flipped the script—DeepSeek’s not a China-US cage match; it’s an open-source haymaker. “This ain’t about who’s got the best toys,” he said. Free code levels the ring—any punk with a laptop can spar now, not just the $50B-a-year tech titans. Tsai’s betting on a swarm of coders piling onto DeepSeek’s R1, leaving Big Tech’s walled gardens in the dust. Open-source AI models aren’t just a trend—they’re a bloody uprising.

DeepSeek’s the spark—January’s launch shook the US tech tree, outgunning OpenAI and Meta in third-party tests, all on a shoestring. Chinese grit or open-source magic? Doesn’t matter—Wall Street’s twitching, and Silicon Valley’s sweating.

Our Take

Benioff’s half-right—Big Tech’s data center fetish’s a cash sink, and DeepSeek 2025 proves you don’t need a billion-dollar gym to flex. Dalio’s chill—chips matter, but China’s already landing punches with what they’ve got. Tsai’s the real kicker—open-source cracks the game wide open, and merchants should perk up. US vs. China AI? Less a superpower showdown, more a free-for-all—DeepSeek’s just the first to swing. Big Tech’s still got muscle, but the lean scrappers are drawing blood—2025’s a brawl, not a parade.

References

• Lee Chong Ming and Shubhangi Goel (2025, 12-Mar). Marc Benioff, Ray Dalio, and the cofounder of Alibaba talk US and China AI. Business Insider. Available online. Accessed 12 March 2025.