US running costs are higher than in China, because the US lags behind in energy, has higher real estate costs, and wage costs are higher.

Eventually we will hit a "good enough for cheap enough" and frontier models will hit diminishing returns (if they haven't already for a lot of types of work)

Don't think the rest of the world will sit on their hands while the US soaks up chips either, demand gets filled and if the US won't fill global demand for chips that's an opportunity to undercut again.

The other thing the rest of the world doesn't have to fund is the ridiculous valuations on these companies.

Unless you think the US can stay ahead just with model efficiencies, and that no one else will eventually match them, you are looking at the writing on the wall.

All that to say, the rest of the world is more than willing to eat your lunch, they have a dozen good reasons to, and they're already showing good results.

Just on the economics side, we've been here before too, US companies typically export their commoditization and live on brand royalties. Think all the cheap manufactured goods, the US doesn't make any of it. That's because the US can't compete on margins for numerous reasons, it's too expensive, I don't think AI is any different here except that the brands are currently valued in the trillions and I suspect that greed will be their undoing.

The US does not lag behind in energy. Industrial electricity prices in most places in the US are competitive with China, or even cheaper.