Headaches for Silicon Valley as China chips away at the US’s lead in the AI race

Google’s AI struggles scream trouble as new Chinese models (again) throw US tech dominance into question

Hello, I’m Blake Montgomery, writing to you after a double-header feature of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and the World Cup final.

What a great Sunday.

Today in tech, we’re discussing how China is chipping away at the US’s lead in the AI race and how Silicon Valley’s workers are taking action to protect their jobs from AI.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/14/new-york-moratorium-ai-datacenters">New York becomes first state to impose one-year pause on new AI datacenters

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/15/trump-new-york-datacenter-moratorium">Trump rails against New York’s statewide datacenter moratorium

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/16/albaneses-ai-blueprint-sparks-calls-for-datacentre-moratorium-until-new-regulations-in-place">Albanese’s AI blueprint sparks calls for datacentre moratorium until new regulations in place

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/jul/17/adversarial-clothing-are-garments-designed-to-confuse-facial-recognition-systems-about-to-go-mainstream">‘Adversarial clothing’: are garments designed to confuse facial recognition systems about to go mainstream?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/14/ibm-shares-profit-drop-value">IBM loses quarter of its value as tech giant’s shares plunge and profits falter

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/15/teenagers-verdic-britain-social-media-curfew-ban-whats-the-point">‘What’s the point?’ Teenagers give their verdict on Britain’s social media curfew

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/17/amazon-web-services-customers-trillion-dollar-bills-global-glitch">Amazon Web Services customers receive bills for up to $1.5tn after global glitch

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/jul/16/justin-sun-trump-family-crypto">Trump made $1.4bn from crypto in one year.

Is Justin Sun the man who helped him do it?