Bradley Tusk, managing partner and co-founder of Tusk Venture Partners, mentioned on CNBC‘s “The Exchange” that while China excels at producing low-cost AI products in large numbers, the US continues to dominate producing the world’s best technology and innovation.
US Leads Innovation, China Does Low-Cost Production Well
Tusk stressed the U.S. is powerful from free-market competition, not government heavy hand. “If the issue is who can produce the cheapest things at the lowest standard, fastest, that’s still China for sure,” he stated. “But when it is who can produce the absolute best products, the best technology, the best innovation, that’s still the United States.”
He warned that increasing government intervention could harm the U.S.’s technological advantage, encouraging open markets where companies can purchase global materials and export without prohibitive constraints.
Hazards of Restricting China
Tusk cautioned that efforts to restrict China from access to advanced technologies could actually trigger its innovation. He cited the example of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company that developed a more energy-efficient version after being faced with U.S. technology constraints.
“Through putting them more and more into a box, the more they are going to become more creative,” Tusk added. Despite his acknowledgment of differing views which stated that being contained would curtail China’s expansion, he emphasized the speculation surrounding the situations: “Nobody actually knows the answer.”
Role of Energy Policy in AI Competitiveness
Tusk also associated the future of US leadership in AI with energy infrastructure. Large AI models demand enormous amounts of computing power, which demands tremendous amounts of energy.
He asked the US government to speed up the permitting of new energy projects, both nuclear and renewables. Tusk asked the Trump administration to introduce incentive programs providing rewards to states and cities to dismantle regulatory barriers more rapidly.
Whereas President Trump opposes wind energy, Tusk advocated for an integrated strategy involving nuclear, wind, and solar energy to counter growing AI-related energy demands.
