Stanford's big AI report is out. Here are the most important takeaways

The annual report tracks everything from how much money flowed into the industry to how the public feels about it

Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP via Getty Images

Every year, Stanford University releases what has become the closest thing the AI industry has to an official scorecard. Now in its ninth edition and running 423 pages, the AI Index tracks nearly everything: how many models were released and by whom, how much money flowed into the industry, how AI is reshaping labor markets, what it's doing to the power grid, and how the public feels about all of it. The report is widely cited by policymakers, journalists, and executives — and supported by partners including Google $GOOGL and OpenAI while being partly written by people who work at these and other AI companies.

With that in mind, here are a few findings worth pulling out.

China is catching up fast.

The U.S.-China AI model performance gap has effectively closed. As of March 2026, Anthropic's top model leads the best Chinese competitor by just 2.7 percentage points, a margin that has flip-flopped repeatedly since DeepSeek's R1 briefly matched American models in February 2025.

The U.S. still produces more top-tier models — 50 notable releases in 2025 compared to China's 30 — and commands a massive private investment lead,........

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