People shaping AI who were born in China spent 54% of recorded working years there from 2018 on

Where do China-born people shaping AI work? We estimate that 54% of recorded working years were in China during 2018–2026.

Key findings

• The share in China was 54% during 2018–2026, up from 47% during 2008–2017.
• The share in the United States was 33%, down from 42% in the earlier period.
• We use 31 living people and compare 5 countries of birth.

Where were their working years spent?

3 stacked bars for people born in China: share of working years in China, in the United States and elsewhere, in 2008–2017 and 2018–2026, and the country of their current organization.

Source: country of birth from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia, and from other cited web pages; positions from People of Superintelligence career records, as of 17 October 2026. Hong Kong and Macau count with China.

Data table

Period	In China	In United States	Elsewhere	People
Working years 2008–2017	47%	42%	10%	30
Working years 2018–2026	54%	33%	12%	30
Current organization	56%	30%	15%	27

A working year is a person with a dated job in that year. Education is excluded. A year with jobs in more than one country splits equally across those countries, and longer recorded careers carry more weight. We use the first sourced birth-country code; birthplace leaves nationality unknown.

We find 29 of the 31 people in both periods. The full-group comparison can also change as people enter the workforce or their recorded careers end.

We know current employer countries for 27 of the 31 people. China has the largest current group, with 15 people (56% of those with a known current location).

Current employer countries: China, Andrew Yao, Harry Shum, Liang Rubo, Liang Wenfeng, Licheng Jiao, Pascale Fung, Qiang Yang, Ren Zhengfei, Tiejun Huang, Tieniu Tan, Wang Xingxing, Wen Gao, Xue Lan, Yan Junjie and Yang Zhilin; United States, Fei-Fei Li, Gang Hua, Jiawei Han, Jiebo Luo, Kai Li, Victor Zue, William Yang Wang and Xing Xie; United Kingdom, Xin-She Yang and Yutian Chen; Switzerland, Pearl Pu; Japan, David Ha.

For a person with current jobs in several countries, we choose the birth country first, then the United States, then the first other country. This can raise the current home-country share. An employer's country can differ from a remote worker's location.

How does the change compare across countries?

Bars to the right show birth countries whose people spent a larger share of their working years at home from 2018 on; bars to the left show a smaller share.

Source: Wikidata, Wikipedia and People of Superintelligence career records.

Data table

Born in	People	At home 2008–2017	At home 2018–2026	In United States 2008–2017	In United States 2018–2026	Change, points
China	31	47%	54%	42%	33%	7
Germany	76	61%	62%	15%	13%	1
India	44	15%	15%	80%	78%	0
United States	176	92%	90%			-2
United Kingdom	46	39%	36%	42%	48%	-3

Outside context: “the China Initiative was launched in 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions”. The source dates the ending announcement: “In a speech to the National Security Institute at George Mason University on February 23, 2022”. Arnold & Porter, Enforcement Edge, “DOJ Ends Trump-Era China Initiative”, 2022-02-24.