Mary Meeker’s 340-page report claims that AI adoption is changing the world at a rate that has never been seen before. Meeker identifies three key trends: increasing geopolitical importance, rapidly growing infrastructure, and expanding user bases.
India is the world’s largest user of ChatGPT on mobile devices. Contrarily, China is making significant advancements in open-source AI. Furthermore, the report focuses on a significant shift in tech leadership and the formation of future digital powerhouses.
India’s Mobile Boom Powers Rapid AI Adoption
India has become a crucial driver of AI adoption, backed by its mobile-first internet ecosystem. India leads the world in ChatGPT’s mobile app users with 13.5%, surpassing both the US and Germany, according to Meeker’s report. This reflects both India’s increasing use of AI-powered platforms and its growing role in ChatGPT’s growth.
Notably, DeepSeek, a Chinese AI model, has the third-largest user base in India. Even though ChatGPT is illegal in China, 6.9% of DeepSeek’s users are Indian. This highlights how India is central to global digital innovation, offering immense market opportunities for AI developers and platforms alike.
The ideal environment for AI to flourish has been established by India’s tech-savvy youth, reasonably priced mobile internet, and quick smartphone adoption. Startups are testing AI-powered tools in fintech, agriculture, and education. Additionally, the nation is accelerating its AI adoption through public-private partnerships and government initiatives like Digital India.
Can Open-Source AI Give China the Edge?
Open-source AI is changing the developer landscape, despite the fact that closed models such as GPT-4 remain common in enterprise solutions. These models, like Mistral’s Mixtral and Meta’s Llama, make it easier for governments and smaller players to enter the market.
China is leading this open-source AI charge. Baidu’s Ernie 4.5, Alibaba’s Qwen-32B, and DeepSeek-R1 were all released in Q2 2025 alone. Furthermore, these releases signal a change in strategy by placing more of an emphasis on community access and local language tools.
Meeker captures this evolution with a stark contrast: “We’re watching two philosophies unfold — freedom vs. control, speed vs. safety.” China’s open-source revolution is a geopolitical shift toward digital innovation as much as a technological one.
China’s focus on open-source AI also reflects its push for independence from Western platforms. Additionally, community-driven code and national support to advance AI capabilities are advantageous to its developers. China is gaining a competitive edge in digital innovation.
Future of AI Adoption Hinges on Infrastructure
Even with rising ChatGPT growth, the business models around AI remain in flux. According to the report, despite serving hundreds of millions of users, platforms generate a median revenue of $23 per user.
Meanwhile, training large AI models is costly. Some models require up to $1 billion to develop. However, chip advances from Nvidia and Amazon are driving efficiency, making AI adoption more scalable and accessible.
Despite the high cost of development, the cost of utilizing AI tools is rapidly declining. There is increasing competition for control of the chips, GPUs, and cloud centers that make up AI infrastructure. Therefore, countries and companies are competing for alliances and resources to take the lead in the long-term adoption of AI.
AI Adoption Is Reshaping Global Power
The AI adoption landscape is rapidly evolving, shaped by infrastructure, philosophy, and geography. India is leading with usage, while China is innovating through openness. Therefore, it is evident that the next digital era will probably be led by countries that make early investments in talent and infrastructure. As this transformation occurs, the balance of global technological power may shift faster than ever imagined.
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