The White House's AI and crypto czar thinks that Huawei and other Chinese tech firms are pulling closer to U.S. capabilities than was previously thought, and is blaming the tight race on Biden-era policies. David Sacks, venture-capitalist-turned-government-official, believes overly strict trade regulations on U.S. hardware exports have made other countries more likely to turn to Huawei and other Chinese domestic products, rather than deal with tight U.S. export laws, per Bloomberg.
"Before DeepSeek, people thought that Chinese AI models were years behind, and we realized that they are only months behind," said Sacks in an interview with Bloomberg. He further stated that the White House believes the Chinese tech sector's savvy navigation of U.S. export laws, designed to strangle its market, has helped heavy hitters like Huawei catch up to at most two years behind leading-edge U.S. chip designs.
