Mapped: The Countries Developing the World’s AI Models

Ranked: Which Countries Build the Most AI Models?

Key Takeaways:

• The United States develops 50% of the AI models in the dataset, more than twice China’s 24% share.

• Together, the U.S. and China account for 74% of models, leaving other economies far behind.

• The UK ranks third at 5.2%, while Germany and France each account for just over 2%.

The global race to develop artificial intelligence is overwhelmingly concentrated in two countries: the United States and China.

This visualization uses analysis from the World Bank’s World Development Report 2026, based on Epoch AI’s model dataset from May 2026, to show where AI models are being developed.

Which Countries Develop the Most AI Models?

The following table ranks economies by their share of AI models, according to the World Bank’s analysis of Epoch AI data.

RankEconomyAI Models (%)

1 United States50.0

2 China24.0

3 United Kingdom5.2

4 Canada3.1

5 South Korea2.3

6 Germany2.2

7 France2.1

8 Japan1.5

9 Switzerland1.4

10 Hong Kong SAR, China1.1

--Other countries7.1

The U.S. leads with 50%, followed by China at 24%. The UK is a distant third at 5.2%, while Canada ranks fourth at 3.1%. No other individually listed economy exceeds 2.3%.

Why Does the U.S. Dominate AI Development?

America’s advantage comes from its combination of venture capital, leading technology companies, research talent, and computing infrastructure.

Companies including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic benefit from an established cloud ecosystem and access to advanced semiconductors. Federal research funding and policies supporting domestic chip production have also strengthened this environment.

The country’s leadership extends beyond developing models to operating some of the world’s most widely used AI chatbots.

Is China Closing the AI Gap?

China’s 24% share trails America’s substantially, but model quantity does not necessarily indicate technological capability. Chinese developers including DeepSeek and Alibaba have narrowed the performance gap with leading American systems, particularly through lower-cost and open-weight models.

Although China has considerable influence over the critical minerals powering AI infrastructure, access to advanced chips, computing capacity, and capital remains crucial.

Why Is Europe Falling Behind?

Europe’s relatively small shares reflect challenges including fragmented capital markets, fewer large-scale technology investors, and limited access to computing infrastructure. Regulatory uncertainty may also complicate investment, although Europe’s position cannot be attributed simply to skepticism about AI.

Falling behind in model development could increase dependence on American and Chinese providers, potentially limiting Europe’s control over AI infrastructure and future innovation.

Nevertheless, the World Bank emphasizes that countries can capture substantial economic benefits by adapting existing AI systems rather than developing expensive frontier models themselves.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To explore how the two leading AI powers compare beyond model counts, see Comparing U.S. vs. Chinese AI Model Performance on Voronoi.

Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-countries-developing-the-worlds-ai-models/