Canada’s technology startup Cohere’s CEO, Aidan Gomez, stated on Thursday that the United States and Canada have “significant advantages” in helping global economies adopt artificial intelligence (AI). This positions both countries ahead of China in the global tech race.
At the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Gomez pointed out that while China has introduced high-performance AI models, narrowing the gap with top closed-source large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI, the key lies in who the primary service provider for this technology is, rather than who first acquires it or who can commercialize it on a large scale.
Gomez emphasized the strategic position of the United States and Canada to become global partners in the adoption of this technology, stating, “I believe we will outperform China.”
Earlier this year, the Chinese startup DeepSeek gained attention for its AI models, intensifying the US-China tech competition. Since then, Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Baidu have accelerated the release of new models and upgrades to AI products.
To strengthen the US’s technological lead, major US tech companies and AI operators have invested billions of dollars to enhance computing power and reinforce AI infrastructure.
Gomez’s remarks contrast sharply with recent comments by Huang Renxun, CEO of the AI chip giant Nvidia, who warned that China’s AI development is closely trailing the US, “only a few nanoseconds behind.”
Gomez added that democratic countries globally are reluctant to incorporate Chinese technology into critical economic infrastructure, stating, “If you have to choose a partner to rely on for transforming your entire economy, I think you would choose a free democratic country.”
Based in Toronto, Cohere focuses on developing enterprise-specific AI models. Gomez mentioned, “Increasing investment by $10 billion annually to improve models does not bring reasonable returns on investment from a technical standpoint.”
He noted, “After years of massive development, we have observed a slowdown in the pace of model improvements.”
Meanwhile, investors are increasingly pressuring tech giants like Microsoft and Google under Alphabet to deliver better returns on the billions they have invested in the AI field.
(*This article references related reports from Reuters.)