U.S.-China Trade Dispute Fades as Chinese Tech Firms Shine at CES 2024

Once overshadowed by the U.S.-China trade dispute, Chinese companies and startups have made a prominent return to CES 2024, the world’s largest tech exhibition. There’s a growing concern that amid the leadership of U.S., Korean, and Taiwanese companies in foundational semiconductor technology for generative AI, poised to revolutionize the industry, private exchanges and cooperation could face obstacles, potentially rendering them obsolete. At this year’s CES, Chinese companies are expected to analyze and seek consultations on the innovative technologies and services developed by U.S., Korean, and Taiwanese firms during the pandemic.

According to the U.S. Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which organizes the event, 4,314 companies worldwide are participating in CES, which will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from January 9 to 12 (local time). The country with the most participating companies is the U.S. (1,208 companies, 28%). China recorded second place with a close difference, with 1,114 companies (25.8%) participating.

Before the spread of COVID-19, China accounted for 35% of all companies participating in CES. However, the number of participating companies drastically decreased due to lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the effects of the U.S.-China trade dispute, giving up the first and second places to the U.S. and Korea.

However, this year, led by Hisense and TCL, many Chinese companies returned to CES, showing that national conflicts and private exchanges are separate. Considering that 502 Chinese companies participated in last year’s CES, the number of participating companies has more than doubled in a year. Most of these are companies based in Shenzhen with global competitiveness in electric cars and parts.

However, major Chinese IT and home appliance companies such as Huawei, Haier, Xiaomi, and Honor, which cannot participate due to U.S. sanctions, did not participate. Instead, they are expected to unveil new technologies and services at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month, where they are not under the influence of the U.S. government. The industry predicts that U.S., Korean, and Taiwanese companies will prefer CES to unveil new technologies, while Chinese and friendly nation companies will increasingly prefer MWC (Barcelona, Shanghai).

This year, 789 Korean companies (18.3%) are participating in CES to announce their technological innovation achievements in AI, home appliances, and mobility. This is a 1.7-fold increase compared to the 469 companies that participated last year. Korean companies and startups prefer CES because it’s easier to enter the global market or attract foreign investment by introducing their products and services to companies and investors worldwide. The lack of a mega global exhibition like CES in Korea is also cited as a reason.

Many companies from France (204 companies, 4.7%) and Taiwan (179 companies, 4.1%) also participate in CES. In particular, Taiwanese companies cooperate with Nvidia, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm to showcase many On-Device AI devices, competing with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. On-device AI runs a generative AI assistant solely on a device without an internet connection. In addition, companies from Japan (72), Germany (67), and Israel (36) also showed a high participation rate at CES.

By. Il Yong Kang