对于中国顶尖人工智能研究人员而言，硅谷不再具有往日无可匹敌的吸引力。
For China’s elite artificial intelligence researchers, Silicon Valley no longer holds the unrivalled appeal it once did.
根据智库“中国国际问题研究院”（Carnegie China）本周发布的一项研究，越来越多的研究人员选择留在国内发展事业，帮助中国超越美国，成为顶尖AI人才的主要职场。
A growing number are opting to stay home to build their careers, helping China overtake the United States as the leading workplace for top-tier AI talent, according to a study released this week by the think tank Carnegie China.
根据题为“谁在引领全球AI人才竞赛”的研究报告，去年中国雇佣了该研究追踪的全球顶尖AI研究人员中的41%，超过了美国的34%。这标志着与2022年形成了反差，当时美国以46%对27%占据压倒性优势。
China employed 41 per cent of the world’s leading AI researchers tracked by the study last year, pulling ahead of the US at 34 per cent, according to the study titled “Who’s ahead in the global AI talent race”. That marked a reversal from 2022, when the US held a commanding lead with 46 per cent compared with China’s 27 per cent.
分析人士表示，这些发现指向全球技术力量平衡的更广泛转移，因为北京和华盛顿正在争夺尖端技术领域的霸权。
Analysts said the findings pointed to a broader shift in the global balance of technological power as Beijing and Washington compete for supremacy in cutting-edge technologies.
“这既有推力也有拉力，”中国国际问题研究院院长、该报告合著者马捷（Damien Ma）周三在接受采访时表示。
“It’s both push and pull,” said Damien Ma, director of Carnegie China and co-author of the report, in an interview on Wednesday.
他说，中国建立起了一个“强大”的国内AI产业，拥有深度求索（DeepSeek）和月之暗面（Moonshot AI）等知名企业，薪酬待遇现在已“相当可观”，可与硅谷媲美。
China had built a “formidable” domestic AI industry backed by high-profile players such as DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, where compensation was now “pretty comparable” to that in Silicon Valley, he said. Moonshot AI itself was co-founded by its CEO Yang Zhilin, who earned his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University before returning to China.
月之暗面本身就是由其首席执行官杨植麟联合创立的，他在卡内基梅隆大学获得博士学位后返回中国。
China also remained the largest source of AI expertise. Last year, 57 per cent of elite AI researchers earned their undergraduate degrees in the country, up 11 percentage points from 2022. By comparison, 13 per cent completed their undergraduate studies in the US, the report showed.
中国仍然是AI专业知识的最大来源地。去年，57%的精英AI研究人员在该国获得本科学位，较2022年上升了11个百分点。相比之下，13%的人在美国完成本科阶段学业，报告显示。
Domestic graduates are also increasingly staying put. Among researchers who completed their undergraduate degrees in China, 69 per cent were working in the country last year, up from 57 per cent in 2022.
国内毕业生也越来越倾向于留在国内。在本科阶段在中国获得学位的研究人员中，去年有69%在中国工作，高于2022年的57%。
The higher retention rate was likely driven by expanding opportunities in China’s AI industry along with tighter US visa restrictions, according to the study.
根据该研究，更高的留存率很可能是由中国AI产业不断扩大的机会以及美国更严格的签证限制共同驱动的。
To measure the movement of “top AI talent”, the study’s authors Ma and Yang Binyi analysed 10,280 researchers, representing about 40 per cent of all authors whose papers were accepted at the 2025 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, one of the world’s leading machine-learning conferences.
为了衡量“顶尖AI人才”的流动情况，该研究的作者马和杨彬毅分析了10,280名研究人员，他们约占2025年神经信息处理系统大会（世界领先的机器学习会议之一）论文被录用作者总数的40%。
To measure the movement of “top AI talent”, the study’s authors Ma and Yang Binyi analysed 10,280 researchers, representing about 40 per cent of all authors whose papers were accepted at the 2025 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, one of the world’s leading machine-learning conferences.
尽管中国的吸引力日益增强，美国仍然是选择出国发展的研究人员的首选目的地。马表示，在美国工作的AI研究人员中，拥有中国本科学位者的比例去年上升了4个百分点，显示美国雇主继续吸引着寻求海外机会的中国顶尖人才。
Despite China’s growing appeal, the US remained the top destination for researchers who do venture abroad. The share of US-based AI researchers who earned their undergraduate degrees in China rose by 4 percentage points last year, showing that American employers continued to attract top Chinese talent seeking opportunities overseas, Ma said. At the same time, researchers face mounting barriers to cross-border mobility as both countries intensify scrutiny of technology transfers and national security risks.
与此同时，随着两国都加强对技术转移和国家安全风险的审查，研究人员面临着日益增加的跨境流动障碍。
For years, Washington has restricted visas for some Chinese graduate students and researchers with links to institutions associated with Beijing’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, citing concerns about technology transfer and intellectual property.
多年来，华盛顿以技术转移和知识产权担忧为由，限制与北京“军民融合”战略相关机构有联系的部分中国研究生和研究人员的签证。
For years, Washington has restricted visas for some Chinese graduate students and researchers with links to institutions associated with Beijing’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, citing concerns about technology transfer and intellectual property.
同样，北京于9月15日实施新规，限制违反出口管制且其行为威胁“国家产业或技术安全”的中国公民出境数月或数年。
Similarly, Beijing imposed new rules on September 15 restricting Chinese citizens who violate export controls from leaving the country for months or years if their actions threaten “national industrial or technology security”.
这些举措出台之际，在美国收紧对先进芯片和专用硬件的出口管制背景下，中国科技公司正加速努力强化国内AI生态系统。
These moves come as Chinese technology companies accelerate efforts to strengthen the domestic AI ecosystem amid tightening US export controls on advanced chips and specialised hardware.
阿里巴巴周二发布了其所谓的“中国最强”AI芯片，这是其涵盖半导体、数据中心及其通义千问系列AI模型战略的一部分。该公司还透露计划使用高达10万亿参数训练其通义千问5 AI模型——这是衡量模型规模和复杂度的指标。文/钟鸣李
Alibaba on Tuesday unveiled what it called “China’s most powerful” AI chip yet as part of a strategy spanning semiconductors, data centres and its Qwen family of AI models. The company also teased plans to train its Qwen 5 AI model using up to 10 trillion parameters – a measure of a model’s scale and complexity. By Chong Ming Lee