China has cut America's lead in AI benchmark scores to 3%, down from 15% earlier this year and roughly 9% in May, according to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates. DeepSeek's V4.1 Flash, released in September, pushed the gap to its lowest level on record.
The numbers land as President Donald Trump escalates his defense of the AI buildout, warning that communities blocking data centers will be left "backwards and poor" and claiming China is the only party benefiting from the backlash.
The V4.1 Flash effect
DeepSeek's V4.1 Flash placed sixth globally on LiveBench with a score of 81.1 — 2.3 points behind Anthropic's best entry at 83.4. Only three of the top 15 models on the LiveBench ranking are Chinese. Bloomberg Intelligence credited deeper expertise and models tuned for domestic hardware for the gains.
The benchmark gap was 15% earlier this year and about 9% in May, a steady decline that now sits at 3%. That trajectory has renewed questions about whether US export restrictions on Nvidia hardware are accomplishing what Washington intended.
Earlier this year, Anthropic argued that tighter controls could secure the US a 12-to-24-month lead by 2028. The new numbers complicate that projection.
BI senior analyst Robert Lea cautioned that rankings shift and Chinese labs may struggle to turn scores into revenue. The warning cuts both ways: benchmark leadership doesn't automatically translate into commercial dominance, but it does signal how quickly the technical frontier is moving.
Amodei's pacing call finds backing
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged pacing the frontier — a call OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed. The three executives rarely agree on much, which makes the shared position notable. It also sits awkwardly alongside Trump's public insistence that the industry should not be slowed.
On September 19, Trump announced an AI Force and vowed not to slow the industry. He signed a voluntary accord with six tech leaders that leaves safety to the companies themselves. He also signed an executive order to rename artificial intelligence as superintelligence.
A White House task force under Jay Clayton, the AI czar, is due to report back in 120 days on AI's risks and opportunities, along with Washington's responsibilities.
69% oppose nearby data centers
An NBC News poll found 69% of adults oppose AI data centers nearby. That's the political problem Trump is trying to reframe. In his telling, the opposition isn't local concern about land, power, or water — it's a "SICK conspiracy" being run for China's benefit.
"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China," Trump wrote. "WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!"
The framing puts him at odds with the poll numbers and, potentially, with the voters in the communities where the data centers would go. It also sets up a collision between the White House's push to build and the voluntary safety accord that lets companies police themselves.
What 120 days buys
Clayton's task force has 120 days to deliver its findings. That report will land in a landscape where China's benchmark gap has shrunk from 15% to 3% in under a year, where only three of the top 15 LiveBench models are Chinese, and where two-thirds of polled adults don't want the infrastructure next door.
The question the report is meant to answer — what Washington's responsibilities actually are — has no settled answer. Lea's caution about rankings shifting cuts both ways: China's gains could stall, or the 3% gap could keep closing.
What's certain is the clock. Clayton's team has 120 days, and the benchmark numbers will move before then.
