Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and the AI-focused venture firm Laude, has raised concerns that the U.S. is losing its dominance in AI research to China. He described this shift as an “existential” threat to democracy during the Cerebral Valley AI Summit this week.
Konwinski highlighted that PhD students at leading U.S. universities like Berkeley and Stanford report encountering twice as many innovative AI ideas from Chinese companies as from American firms in the past year. He stressed that while major AI labs such as OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic continue to innovate, much of their research remains proprietary.
“Generative AI emerged directly from the Transformer architecture, a breakthrough shared freely with the academic community,” Konwinski explained. He argued that true AI advancement requires open collaboration among scientists, something he believes is declining in the U.S.
Through his Laude Institute, Konwinski provides grants and support to AI researchers, aiming to encourage innovation outside the confines of proprietary labs. He warned that China’s approach, where the government encourages open-source AI research through labs like DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen, fosters greater breakthroughs.
Konwinski emphasized that this shift threatens not only U.S. leadership in AI but also the long-term competitiveness of American AI labs. “We’re eating our corn seeds; the fountain is drying up. Fast-forward five years, the big labs are going to lose too,” he said.
The Databricks co-founder urged policymakers, academics, and industry leaders to take action to maintain U.S. leadership in AI. He stressed that openness and collaboration are key to ensuring the country remains a global AI hub and avoids falling behind competitors like China.
Konwinski concluded by highlighting the strategic importance of supporting open research, training the next generation of AI talent, and ensuring that AI innovation in the U.S. continues to thrive for both business and democratic interests.
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