Key points
- How much AI gear the US imports from China
- The Chinese supplier behind US AI optics
- Why US companies use Chinese AI models
The US imported roughly $45 billion worth of AI-related goods from China last year, The Washington Post reported on October 11, citing a paper by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis economist Michael Waugh. The categories include computer hardware, power equipment, cooling systems, and fire safety gear used in data centers.
That was down from about $55 billion two years earlier. Waugh told the Post that China's share of US AI-related imports fell by about half to 7% in 2025, then to 3% in the first half of 2026. Suppliers in Taiwan and Vietnam took on a larger role, which he said suggests some Chinese goods may be reaching the US through those countries.
Chinese optics sit inside US AI data centers
One Chinese supplier that has benefited is Zhongji InnoLight, which makes the optical transceivers that link servers inside AI data centers. Nearly 60% of its business comes from US customers including Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Nvidia (NVDA), according to the Post.
The Pentagon added InnoLight to its list of Chinese military companies in June. InnoLight rejected the designation in a Shenzhen filing. The Trump administration is also considering a ban on imports of new Chinese-made data center equipment, according to a Reuters report cited by the Post.
"Building the data centers and training U.S. models depends on a lot of data center components that come from China," Kyle Chan, an AI specialist at the Brookings Institution, told the Post.
US companies keep using Chinese models
Many US companies use Kimi K3, the newest model from Moonshot AI, as a cheaper alternative to models from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to the Post.
Some US companies have said publicly that they use Chinese models. DoorDash (DASH) co-founder Andy Fang posted on X that the company had begun using Kimi K2.6, an earlier Moonshot model, for lower-level work, and two House committees then asked DoorDash how it evaluates Chinese AI. Airbnb (ABNB) CEO Brian Chesky said last October that the company was "relying a lot on Alibaba's Qwen model" for its customer service agent. Moonshot is preparing a Hong Kong IPO that could raise up to $5 billion early next year.
In July, as the administration weighed restrictions on Chinese open-weight models, nearly 200 US startups urged it not to cut off access. Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta signed a separate letter opposing broad restrictions on open-weight models.
That reliance comes as Washington steps up its pressure. On September 8, the NSA, FBI, and CISA accused Moonshot and five other Chinese AI companies, DeepSeek, Alibaba (BABA), MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.ai, of training their models on leading US models in violation of the US providers' terms of use.
