Chinese universities surpass US rivals in AI ranking – and then there is DeepSeek
Peking University has topped a major AI research output ranking, as China solidifies its challenge to America for AI dominance
Peking University has topped a global list of institutions ranked by AI research output since 2022, according to website AIRankings.
In a Peking University forum in January, Zhu, who also founded the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, said the narrative of US dominance in science and technology, including AI, had encouraged funding and innovation in the US, while hurting the confidence of other countries.
“Creating world-class technology through Chinese thinking is our goal and our responsibility,” he said. “China is fully capable of taking the initiative in the era of general AI.” He also noted that the country should not simply imitate the West in its AI development.
In terms of the number of research papers for 2024, Peking University topped the rankings, followed by Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University, according to the site. Chinese institutions took half of the positions among the top 10, while two other spots were taken by other universities in Asia.
Fourth place went to Carnegie Mellon University in the US, then Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Stanford University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) and University of California, Berkeley.
Institute rankings covering the entire decade from 2015 to 2025 saw the top three as Peking University, Carnegie Mellon and Tsinghua, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and UC Berkeley in the US. Zhejiang University, CAS, KAIST and NTU were next on the list.
Website AIRankings analyses worldwide AI research ability, such as computer vision, natural language and machine learning, at different levels including authors, institutes, cities and countries. It collects data on publications in scientific journals and academic conferences.
Since 2015, 188 institutes in the US have published more than 35,000 articles. This is followed by China where 33 institutes have published nearly 17,900 articles. After that comes Britain at 7,050, Germany at 6,480 and Canada at 4,070, followed by Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Japan.
So far this year, 27 Chinese institutes have published a combined total of 280 articles by 279 authors, compared to 102 American institutes which have published 179 articles by 248 authors.