AI startup Cohere CEO says US holds edge over China in AI race
North America Positioned as the World’s AI Partner
The U.S. and Canada are in a powerful position to lead the global adoption of artificial intelligence, according to Aidan Gomez, CEO and co-founder of Canadian AI startup Cohere. Speaking at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Gomez said North America’s ability to commercialize AI at scale, not merely invent it, puts the region ahead of China in the global AI competition.
Gomez emphasized that while China has developed strong AI systems, the decisive factor is who becomes the world’s primary AI service provider, not who builds the fastest or biggest model first.
“It’s not who gets the technology first, but who commercializes it at scale,” Gomez said. “The U.S. and Canada sit in an incredible position to be the world’s partner in adopting this technology, I think we will win against China.”
China’s Rapid AI Growth Raising Global Competition
China’s AI race intensified earlier this year after startup DeepSeek surged into prominence. Tech giants Alibaba and Baidu have since accelerated their AI development, pushing out new upgrades and products at a faster pace.
This growth has narrowed the gap between China’s leading AI models and top-tier closed-source models from companies like OpenAI.
Still, Gomez noted that geopolitical realities, and global market preferences, play a larger role than pure model performance.
Liberal Democracies Reluctant to Adopt Chinese AI
Gomez said countries that value open governance and transparency are unlikely to rely on Chinese AI technology as the backbone of their digital infrastructure.
“If you’re going to pick a partner to rely on to transform your entire economy, I think you will pick a liberal democracy,” he said.
This preference, he argued, strengthens North America’s pathway to becoming the go-to global provider for enterprise and national-scale AI solutions.
Massive U.S. AI Spending Fuels Long-Term Ambitions
Big Tech players in the U.S., including Microsoft, Google, and various AI labs, have invested tens of billions of dollars to expand compute power and AI infrastructure. These investments aim to position America as the global hub for artificial intelligence development and deployment.
But Gomez’s stance stands in contrast to comments made by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who recently warned that China is “nanoseconds behind America” and could potentially overtake the U.S. in the AI race.
Slowing Model Improvements and Investor Pressure
Gomez argued that simply spending an additional $10 billion per year to scale models no longer produces meaningful improvements. As AI companies push toward artificial super-intelligence, investors have begun demanding greater returns from the massive capital being deployed.
“We’re seeing a slowdown in the improvement of the models,” Gomez noted, suggesting the industry is entering a more measured, efficiency-driven era.
Cohere Stays Focused on Enterprise AI, Not Sci-Fi Doomsday
Cohere, based in Toronto, builds AI systems specifically tailored for enterprise use rather than consumer-facing chatbots. Gomez also dismissed fears about apocalyptic AI scenarios, saying they are largely driven by sci-fi narratives, not reality.
“I don’t believe these stories of ‘Terminators’ and doomsdays,” he said.
As the global AI arms race intensifies, Gomez maintains confidence that North America, and especially the U.S., will remain the preferred AI partner for most of the world.
