Vitalik Buterin Dismisses U.S.-China AI Arms Race Narrative as ’Misguided’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin just threw cold water on one of tech's hottest talking points. The narrative of an escalating, winner-takes-all AI arms race between the U.S. and China? He's not buying it.

The Flawed Frame

Speaking at a recent tech forum, Buterin argued the 'arms race' metaphor is dangerously simplistic. It frames artificial intelligence as a zero-sum battlefield, a dynamic that inevitably fuels secrecy, accelerates reckless deployment, and stifles the global collaboration the field desperately needs. His critique cuts to the core of how we discuss—and thus shape—technological progress.

A Call for Cooperative Governance

Instead of nationalistic posturing, Buterin pushed for a model rooted in open-source principles and transparent, multi-stakeholder governance. The real race, he suggested, shouldn't be between superpowers, but against the clock to establish ethical guardrails and alignment research that benefits humanity as a whole. It's a vision that bypasses geopolitical tension in favor of collective problem-solving.

Of course, suggesting cooperation over competition in a sector fueled by venture capital hype and government subsidies is a tough sell—almost as tough as getting a crypto project to deliver a product on time. Buterin's stance remains a provocative counterpoint to the doom-scrolling headlines, insisting the future of AI is something we can still choose to build, not just fear.

Is a moratorium on AI development needed? 

Senator Bernie Sanders took to X to advocate for a halt to the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, proposing a moratorium on the building of the massive data centers currently causing the “unregulated sprint” of AI development. 

Sanders’ view is that a temporary pause WOULD give democratic institutions the necessary time to “catch up” and ensure that the technology will benefit the general public and not just the wealthiest 1%.

Large-scale data centers currently consume immense amounts of electricity and water, with some individual facilities projected to use as much power as 750,000 homes.

In response, Buterin wrote out the pros and cons of such a slowdown. He expressed support for distinguishing between “supersized clusters” and consumer-grade AI writing, and he prefers decentralized progress. 

But he also raised concerns that a simple moratorium might be easily worked around by developers and fail to meet its intended safety goals. 

Rather than a moratorium, he proposed the idea of a “pause button” that could cut off power to AI supercomputers during future critical moments.

Is China really racing toward Artificial Superintelligence?

A comment on Sanders’ post read that any U.S. slowdown while China continues to produce at the same pace would mean the U.S. losing its lead in a “new cold war.” 

Responding to this perspective, Buterin stated, “I feel like these claims that China is determined to race to ASI are often overstated and not really well-backed by evidence.”

Recent industry reports are in Buterin’s favor and have revealed that while China is a dominant force in AI research and the industry as a whole, it still faces significant problems. For instance, the 2025 AI Index Report from Stanford shows that U.S. private investment in AI reached $109 billion, which is nearly 12 times that of China. 

Chinese tech leaders have also recently voiced concerns over the “severe problem” of hardware shortages due to U.S. export controls on advanced chips, and experts believe these restrictions have widened the gap in actual model training capabilities.

Russia, another adversary that American AI proponents point to in the argument for ignoring the speed limit in the ASI race, has also had its fair share of setbacks in the AI race. As Cryptopolitan reported in November, Russia has had missteps since it began publicly displaying its AI-powered products, even in the presence of President Vladimir Putin.

The long-serving leader of the former large country has also spoken about the technology’s potential benefits as a modern invention, his country is willing to take advantage of, as well as the perils of artificial intelligence.

“This is an important and very difficult issue,” the head of state noted during a meeting of Russia’s human rights council, as reported by Cryptopolitan earlier this month.

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