Bloomberg Intelligence Says U.S. AI Benchmark Lead Over China Has Narrowed to 3% After DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

The benchmark gap between leading U.S. and Chinese AI models has narrowed to a record-low 3%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, after DeepSeek's September release of DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash. The finding marks a sharp compression from about 9% in May and 15% earlier in 2026, raising fresh questions about how durable the U.S. lead in frontier AI remains as Chinese labs improve model performance and cost efficiency.