OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said in an interview that the U.S. could be underestimating China’s progress and capability in artificial intelligence. CNBC quoted Altman saying that export controls alone likely aren’t a reliable solution and that he’s worried about America’s biggest rival since the Cold War. “There’s inference capacity, where China probably can build faster. There’s research, there’s product; a lot of layers to the whole thing,” Sam told CNBC. “I don’t think it’ll be as simple as: Is the U.S. or China ahead?” Altman is the second CEO of a major tech company that has questioned the effectiveness of export controls. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said time and again that this policy was a failure, claiming that stopping China from getting AI chips like the Nvidia H20 and AMD MI308 is stifling the U.S.’s economic and technological leadership. It’s argued that despite the numerous bans, China was still able to develop advanced AI LLMs, like DeepSeek. “My instinct is that doesn’t work,” Altman added. “You can export-control one thing, but maybe not the right thing… maybe people build fabs or find other workarounds.”

Full report : “I’m worried about China,” OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman is the second major tech company CEO to question the effectiveness of export controls.