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Trade rivalries between China<\/a> and the United States are well known, but there is a competition heating up that, though often overlooked, is perhaps even more crucial.<\/p>\n Setting standards for emerging technologies<\/a> has historically been dominated by the United States, Germany and Japan, and these countries have reaped the profits, said Angelo Katsoras, National Bank of Canada\u2019s geopolitical analyst, in a report.<\/p>\n When a country\u2019s companies set standards in a sector they gain a competitive advantage and generate billions in licensing fees and intellectual property<\/a> rights.<\/p>\n IBM Corp.<\/a>, for example, which holds 100,000 patents, earned $366 million last year from IP licensing, said Katsoras.<\/p>\n \u201cSetting the next generation of global technology standards is not just a technical contest; it is also a strategic battle with significant geopolitical ramifications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe country that comes out on top will gain disproportionate influence over how key emerging technologies are governed, effectively compelling other nations to follow their lead in these sectors for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n China officially launched its China Standards 2035 strategy in 2018, an action plan to establish the country as a global leader in the development of emerging-technology standards, including artificial intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Evidence of its growing presence in this sphere is apparent on the organizations that oversee international standards. Up until recently the U.S. assumed their dominance in these bodies was secure, but China has steadily been gaining influence.<\/p>\n Over the past two decades the country has expanded its leadership roles on the influential International Organization for Standardization from 21 to 373, overtaking Japan, France and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n In a sign of China\u2019s growing influence in the International Telecommunication Union, which develops standards for everything from radio frequencies to 6G mobile networks, three new technical standards approved last year for integrating AI into 6G networks were developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Telecom.<\/p>\n China is also gaining on the patent front, said Katsoras. While Google still tops the generative AI patent race, universities and state-owned companies in China are keeping up with American giants such as Microsoft Corp.<\/a>, Nvidia Corp.<\/a> and IBM.<\/p>\n While American companies up until now have focused on developing AI models that are proprietary, China has focused on open-source AI systems, particularly in developing countries.<\/p>\n \u201cChina\u2019s long-term goal is to transform the specifications of its leading open source AI models into global industry standards,\u201d said Katsoras.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n And they are gaining ground. With 910 million downloads, ChatGPT<\/a> is the world\u2019s leading consumer AI chatbot, compared to the 125 million of China\u2019s DeepSeek<\/a>. But China has now overtaken the United States in the total number of downloads of its open-sourced AI models.<\/p>\n So great was their success that AI global leader OpenAI<\/a> had to shift strategy and release its own open-source version.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was clear that if we didn\u2019t do it, the world was going to head to be mostly built on Chinese open-source models,\u201d said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the time.<\/p>\n Not only is China developing the technology it is also supplying the infrastructure to support it, said Katsoras. Huawei<\/a> and ZTE have become major suppliers of data centre equipment, 5G wireless systems and fibre optic cables particularly in developing nations, offering their products at much lower prices than Western countries.<\/p>\n Last year, China became the world\u2019s largest producer of industrial robots, overtaking Japan.<\/p>\n What further complicates matters is that rising geopolitical tensions are splitting the world in two, with separate standards arising across regions.<\/p>\n \u201cConsequently, more and more, the standards a country adopts and the products to which it grants market access are being dictated by its geopolitical alignment \u2014 whether with China or the United States,\u201d said Katsoras.<\/p>\n \u00a0Sign up here<\/a> to get Posthaste delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s jobs report walloped expectations so soundly Friday that one observer quipped that the Bank of Canada might be tempted to hike rather than cut interest rates this week.<\/p>\n Canada gained 54,000 jobs<\/a> in November, while economists had predicted the loss of 2,500 positions. The unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent, when the consensus was for it to rise to 7.<\/p>\n The solid jobs report, which follows a series of forecast-beating economic data, \u201cquashes any lingering prospect of a near-term Bank of Canada rate cut,\u201d said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.<\/p>\n Markets are now considering the possibility of rate hikes in 2026, but BMO thinks that would be premature. However, the odds of further cuts next year has been seriously reduced, he said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Lars and Anna, newly retired, are in a stronger financial position than they realize. Family Finance runs the numbers on the Northern Ontario couple\u2019s current investments and finds that their net worth could rise from $1,750,000 to well over $5,000,000 in 30 years. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n Interested in energy? The subscriber-only FP West: Energy Insider newsletter brings you exclusive reporting and in-depth analysis on\u00a0 one of the country\u2019s most important sectors. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n Are you worried about having enough for retirement? Do you need to adjust your portfolio? Are you starting out or making a change and wondering how to build wealth? Are you trying to make ends meet? Drop us a line at\u00a0wealth@postmedia.com<\/a>\u00a0with your contact info and the gist of your problem and we\u2019ll find some experts to help you out while writing a Family Finance story about it (we\u2019ll keep your name out of it, of course).<\/p>\n Want to learn more about mortgages? Mortgage strategist Robert McLister\u2019s Financial Post column <\/a>can help navigate the complex sector, from the latest trends to financing opportunities you won\u2019t want to miss. Plus check his mortgage rate page<\/a> for Canada\u2019s lowest national mortgage rates, updated daily.<\/p>\n Visit the Financial Post\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a> for interviews with Canada\u2019s leading experts in business, economics, housing, the energy sector and more.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Posthaste was written by Pamela Heaven<\/a> with additional reporting from Financial Post staff, The Canadian Press and Bloomberg.<\/p>\n Have a story idea, pitch, embargoed report, or a suggestion for this newsletter? Email us at\u00a0posthaste@postmedia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the business news you need to know \u2014 add\u00a0financialpost.com<\/a>\u00a0to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trade rivalries between China and the United States are well known, but there is a competition heating up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[146547,45,49,48,95,46,4120,33976,2454,13740,146549,146548,14094],"class_list":["post-332823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-angelo-katsoras","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-emerging-technologies","tag-international-telecommunication-union","tag-japan","tag-national-bank-of-canada","tag-setting-standards","tag-technical-standards","tag-the-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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