Topics / US-China AI Race
US-China AI Race Podcasts
4 shows and 1,420 episodes sit under US-China AI Race.
Curated podcast guide to the US-China AI race — chip-stack export controls (Lawfare), Chinese frontier-lab releases (Sinica, ChinaTalk)
Photo: Brecht Corbeel on Unsplash · Unsplash License
Swipe · US-China AI Race only
Swipe through US-China AI Race
Save time discovering your next favourite podcast by listening to just the best minute of an episode.
The us-china ai race slate · every cover a link
All 4 us-china ai race shows →
Next to this on the shelf
Pick a subtopic
12 subtopics
Our guide
US-China AI Race podcasts, explained
The useful episodes begin where the scoreboard talk runs out. Model strength matters, but audio earns its hour by asking what “winning” would mean, which institutions shape the contest, and whether the race metaphor clarifies much at all.
China inside the frame
Sinica Podcast brings a measured, interview-led style to China’s politics, economy, technology, and place in the world. It trusts the listener to follow a long argument. The framing gets a direct challenge in "But China!": Robert Wright on the AI Race and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning, while Samm Sacks and Paul Triolo on WAIC 2026, Xi's AI Speech, and Kimi K3 puts specific institutions, a speech, and a model in view.
Institutions and national power
The Lawfare Podcast slows down around authority, procedure, incentives, and consequences. Lawfare Archive: Aram Gavoor on the Biden Administration's AI National Security Memo supplies the American national-security route into AI. Lawfare Daily: Yaqiu Wang on Surveillance, Censorship, and Emerging Technologies in the PRC turns to Chinese state power and emerging technology.
ChinaTalk makes the strategic stakes explicit in Claude Mythos and National Power. Its technical-policy edge is plain in Overfit is now ModelTalk! GPU Smuggling, OpenAI Cooked? + Open Models, AI Writing.
Beyond the race
Move up to Artificial Intelligence for the wider field. Frontier Models stays closer to model capabilities, while AI Infrastructure follows compute and datacenters. For governance beyond the bilateral contest, go to AI Regulation; questions chiefly about release and access choices are better directed to Open Source vs Closed AI.
Where to start
Begin with "But China!": Robert Wright on the AI Race and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning if you want the race framing tested. Choose Lawfare Archive: Aram Gavoor on the Biden Administration's AI National Security Memo for the American institutional side, then Claude Mythos and National Power for the sharper strategic follow-up.
Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.
Featured shows
4 shows, described rather than listed
Each one comes with a short write-up and the role it plays in this guide.
Scaling Laws series — the most patient single read on how US export-control architecture actually functions. Janet Egan, Sam Winter-Levy, and Peter Harrell on the White House semiconductor decision.
Kaiser Kuo's long-running US-China bridge show. Paul Triolo on H200s and Chinese EUV, Kendra Schaefer on the post-DeepSeek release pipeline. The most credible Western-language reporting on Chinese frontier-AI infrastructure.
Jordan Schneider's policy-and-AI fight from inside the China-tech beat. Rare-earth export controls, Chinese model takeover thesis, GPU smuggling — the inside-baseball view.
Bridge cite for adjacent US industrial-policy context. Lutnick on 2026 GDP growth gives the administration macro frame the AI race is being argued inside, even when it doesn't name AI directly.
Where to start
3 routes in, one per reader
Scaling Laws: Export Controls is the standing reference on how the chip-export architecture actually functions in late 2025.
Paul Triolo on Nvidia H200s and Chinese EUV is the sharpest single read on where the export-control architecture is starting to crack.
Seeking the Next DeepSeek with Kendra Schaefer is the cleanest read on how the Chinese AI release pipeline functions inside Beijing's regulatory frame.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing before you listen
The Biden-era export-control framework named for then-NSA Jake Sullivan — restricts advanced AI chips to China through tiered controls. Paul Triolo's December 2025 Sinica episode argued it was collapsing.
Nvidia's data-center GPUs that fall under US export controls to China. The chip-side lever Washington has been using to slow Chinese frontier-AI training.
The semiconductor manufacturing technology required for sub-5nm chips. Currently a single Dutch supplier (ASML); Chinese EUV breakthroughs would unwind a core export-control lever.
The Chinese regulatory frame requiring AI models to be registered with the CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China) before public release. Kendra Schaefer on Sinica is the canonical read.
China's October 2025 rare-earth export controls — a retaliatory pressure point that sits underneath much of the broader US-China tech contest.