China Will Clinch the AI Race!

PLUS: Sequoia Bets Big on Anthropic!

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Welcome back, folks.

China just overtook the US in global AI model downloads while Americans obsess over benchmark scores.

The gap in innovation is closing fast, and Beijing's crushing it on deployment. Guess which one matters more long-term?

Let’s dive into the details. . .

Today in the “Incredible AI” world:

  • China Is Playing the Long AI Game

  • Sequoia Goes All In On Claude Maker

  • Vercel Brings Best Code Rules To AI

  • How to Manage Your Entire Team with AI

  • 5 Super-Useful AI Tools You Should Try

  • AI Image of the Day

Read Time: 4 minutes

- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS -

Why China Might Actually Win AI:

China’s AI rise isn’t just hype—it’s strategy. While the US sprints with chips and models, Beijing plays the marathon game. Innovation plus diffusion may give China the edge in tomorrow’s AI world.

Things to Know:

  • Innovation Gap: US firms lead with frontier models powered by Nvidia chips, but China’s DeepSeek and others are closing fast. Efficiency, data quality, and clever design help offset hardware disadvantages.

  • Research Power: China produces more STEM doctorates and AI patents than the US, with state-backed funding reducing risk. Its research output already surpasses America in most critical technology categories.

  • Infrastructure Advantage: China’s state-driven industrial strategy ensures scaling capacity. With abundant energy reserves and faster construction, it can expand data centres and AI ecosystems more rapidly than the US.

The US may win the sprint, but China is pacing itself for the marathon. With research, infrastructure, and diffusion on its side, Beijing’s AI ambitions look less like catch-up and more like takeover.

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Sequoia Joins Massive Anthropic Funding Round:

Sequoia Capital has quietly decided to play in a new AI sandbox. It’s planning a hefty investment in Anthropic during an eye-watering funding round. This move rewrites some old venture rules.

Things to Know:

  • Funding Round Shakeup: Sequoia is joining a huge Anthropic funding round targeting over $25 billion at a roughly $350 billion valuation. Big names like GIC and Coatue are already on board here.

  • Why It Matters For AI: This isn’t just cash. It’s Sequoia backing a Claude maker that’s grown fast and could IPO soon. That sends a powerful industry signal.

  • Rivalry Doesn’t Scare Big Investors: Sequoia also backs OpenAI and xAI, yet it’s investing in Anthropic too. That’s unusual but shows confidence the market can support many AI leaders.

There’s a new mood in AI funding. Investors aren’t picking just one winner anymore. They’re spreading bets across big players. And that’s great news for anyone watching innovation unfold.

Vercel Just Dropped a Package Manager for AI Coders:

Vercel just released Agent Skills, basically an NPM for AI coding agents. Think of it as packaging a decade of React and Next.js wisdom into bite-sized commands your AI can actually understand and use. No more copying random Stack Overflow answers.

Things to Know:

  • Best Practices Library: Vercel bundled over 40 React and Next.js performance rules into a skill called react-best-practices. Each rule shows you the wrong way and the right way with actual code examples.

  • Design Guidelines: The web-design-guidelines skill packs over 100 UI rules covering accessibility, forms, animations, and dark mode. Your AI agent can spot missing ARIA attributes and broken focus states before you ship.

  • Deploy Instantly: The vercel-deploy-claimable skill turns your code into a live deployment with one command. It auto-detects 40+ frameworks and gives you both a preview URL and a claim URL.

This is how AI agents stop being fancy autocomplete and start becoming actual coding partners. The skills live in version-controlled folders, so you can build your own library over time. Vercel's betting that structured knowledge beats prompt engineering every single time.

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- AI TUTORIAL -

How to Manage Your Remote Team with AI:

Managing teams—especially deskless or mobile workers- can feel overwhelming. From scheduling and training to communication and paperwork, it often means juggling too many tools at once.

Connecteam is an AI-powered platform designed to make team management effortless. It brings scheduling, training, forms, and communication into a single app, with smart AI tools that do the heavy lifting for you.

How it works:

  • Schedule with ease: Automate shifts, prevent scheduling mistakes, and ensure the right people are in the right place at the right time.

  • Track time accurately: Record precise work hours, simplify timesheet approvals, and keep payroll error-free.

  • Streamline daily operations: Use digital forms, checklists, and task assignments to keep work flowing smoothly.

  • Stay connected: Chat instantly, share company updates, and access a searchable employee directory from anywhere.

  • Train and onboard: Deliver bite-sized courses, track progress, and keep resources one tap away for compliance and skill-building.

Stop wasting time on repetitive tasks and clunky systems. With Connecteam AI, you can manage your entire workforce smarter, faster, and easier—all in one place.

- BEST AI TOOLS -

Decktopus: Decktopus is an AI presentation maker, that will create amazing presentations in seconds.

PixVerse: Create breathtaking videos with AI. Transform your ideas into stunning videos with AI.

M-1 Project: Your 24/7 Marketing Copilot. It’s an all-in-one AI marketing assistant.

UltraMail: UltraMail is an AI-powered tool that automates the process of managing and sending personalized marketing emails to customers.

ChatHub: ChatHub is an all-in-one chatbot client that allows users to access multiple chatbot services in one place.

- DAILY POLL AND RESULT -

Today’s Poll:

Q) Should AI have the ability to make judicial decisions?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Vote and find out the result tomorrow.

Yesterday’s Result:

Q) Should AI be used to create personalized healthcare treatments?

  • A) Yes, for better patient outcomes - 64% 👑

  • B) No, it lacks human judgment - 36%

- AI IMAGE OF THE DAY -

Cat Takes Morning Break With Paper:

Prompt:

"Relaxed tabby cat sitting on toilet reading newspaper, calm confident pose, surrounded by lush houseplants and tiled walls, warm sunlight through window. Hand-painted modern illustration in bold mid-century poster style with cut-paper gouache influence. Flat painterly color blocks, expressive shapes, saturated warm pinks, sunshine yellows, deep greens, teal blues. Slightly imperfect hand-drawn feel, clean edges, centered composition, gallery-quality art print aesthetic."

Try this prompt in any decent AI image generator and let me know your result.

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