China‑Linked Groups Broaden Cyber Espionage to Target AI Edge in U.S.–China Rivalry

U.S.-based cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike has warned of a surge in attacks from China‑based entities aimed at stealing artificial‑intelligence capabilities to close the technology gap with the United States.

Cyberattacks targeting American AI technology are increasingly moving beyond traditional tech‑focused exploits to leverage human vulnerabilities, with Chinese actors playing a growing role.

“As the AI race has heated up, the People’s Republic of China has targeted the tech sector increasingly,” said Matt Pearl, director of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Attackers are now casting a wider net—pursuing anything that could narrow the three‑ to four‑month AI advantage the U.S. holds, from product roadmaps to supply‑chain weaknesses, Pearl explained.

Incidents are already multiplying. In June, CrowdStrike reported that Chinese entities accounted for more than half of all state‑sponsored intrusions targeting technology firms’ AI assets over the 12 months ending March 31.

Anthropic has accused Chinese companies, including Alibaba, of illicit attempts to pilfer its AI capabilities. Alibaba declined to comment.

Last year, U.S. AI content‑detection startup Copyleaks found that responses from Chinese startup DeepSeek’s R1 model matched the style of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in roughly three‑quarters of cases, hinting that the Chinese model may have been trained on U.S. data.

“We haven’t seen [the same stylistic match] in other large language models,” said Alon Yamin, Copyleaks’ CEO and co‑founder. DeepSeek and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.

Brian Abbott, founder and CEO of Agentiq Capital, told CNBC in June that he believes an employee hired from China was a Beijing agent who deliberately altered code and website content to block venture‑capital funding. Abbott alleges the worker replaced references to “ASI” (artificial superintelligence) with the term “fintech,” which has lost investor appeal. The employee was dismissed earlier this year, and the company filed an FBI complaint; CNBC could not independently verify the claim.

“China’s economic espionage campaign is a continuing threat that costs the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year and puts our national security at risk,” the FBI said in a statement to CNBC. “The FBI prioritizes investigating any potential theft of U.S. technology by foreign actors and remains unwavering in our commitment to protect the homeland.”

The Cyberspace Administration of China and the U.S. Department of State offered no comment when contacted. None of the interviewees reported awareness of similar state‑directed subversions.

Graham Webster, editor‑in‑chief of Stanford University’s DigiChina Project, cautioned that separating state‑sponsored espionage from individual or corporate efforts is challenging. He added that the discourse on Chinese AI is also shaped by major U.S. firms preparing for large IPOs.

“[The] narrative is overtaking reality in a lot of decisions,” Webster observed. “The U.S. government is trying to hold China back to some extent,” he noted, referencing export controls. “We should not be surprised that the Chinese government tries otherwise.”

Start‑ups Face Heightened Risk

Capital remains the primary engine of the AI race, pushing start‑ups to challenge established giants or position themselves for acquisition.

However, this environment creates “cyber poverty lines,” leaving smaller firms without the resources of larger enterprises to defend against attacks, said Cliff Steinhauer of the National Cybersecurity Alliance.

Human weakness often poses the greatest danger, especially as attackers exploit social‑engineering tactics amplified by AI‑generated content. New hires and contracted workers are frequently targeted to breach systems.

“We’ve seen a lot of cases within our company, new employees that are joining the company, immediately they’re a target of cyberattacks to get access to our AI models,” Yamin said, predicting more such incidents.

Government and industry programs also affect start‑up costs. Anthropic launched the Claude Corps initiative on June 11 to train 1,000 people in AI and match them with U.S. non‑profits. In contrast, China offers start‑ups subsidized computing power and rent‑free office space.

Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of Strategy Risks, noted that Beijing tends to focus on large corporations but start‑ups remain especially vulnerable due to limited cyber expertise. “And Beijing’s attempts have certainly increased over the last 18 months, since the release of DeepSeek really kicked off the U.S.–China AI race,” he said.

“Beijing wants to ensure that Chinese companies are at the vanguard of the global AI race,” Stone Fish continued. “One way it does that is by sometimes working to suppress the development of American AI companies, through supply‑chain restrictions, employee harassment, hacking, targeted government subsidies of copycat competitors, among other strategies.”

For start‑ups, balancing rapid innovation with robust security remains a critical challenge.

Abbott reflected on the employee incident: “If we paid everybody market rate, for a scrappy start‑up I could never afford to do this,” he said, underscoring the “need to secure our economy of start‑ups stateside.”

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