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Feldman: Western tech leaders fundamentally underestimate China's AI capabilities

Andrew Feldman · Andrew Feldman, Cerebras Co-Founder and CEO: The AI Chip Wars & The Plan to Break Nvidia's Dominance · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 24, 2025 · at 1:01:28

Andrew Feldman, CEO of Cerebras, discusses global AI supply chains and geopolitical competition, arguing that the U.S. underestimates China's technical talent and industrial policy execution.

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“A hundred percent. I think, and it is one of the most obvious and frequent errors in judgment. Is that you underestimate the other side. I think, ah, you have to look carefully at what they're doing, and their investment in infrastructure has been extraordinary. Ah, the rate at which they generate engineering talent is exceptional. The government's ability to have a policy and implement it, you know, they're, you know, that's not a democracy. They weren't designed to have checks and balances there, right? The funding that flowed into the development of AI technology, that their venture capitalists were backed up by their government, that they have national champion companies, that they've developed a belt and suspender strategy to sort of make much of the third world dependent. On them and their technologies. I think they absolutely should not be underestimated. They have a lot of people, and we see a tiny fraction of it. I think they have produced industrial policy. That has moved their nation forward.”

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