Pulse: Salary gap between Chinese AI engineers and their American counterparts narrowed to 2 times.

Research data released by the Maimai Talent Intelligence Database shows that the salary gap between Chinese AI engineers and their American counterparts has narrowed to 2 times, but American AI professionals work up to 80-100 hours per week, while 2/3 of Chinese AI professionals work fewer than 60 hours per week. In September 2025, the number of new AI-related positions in China increased by more than 11 times compared to the previous year. The research from Maimai Talent Intelligence Database shows that the salary gap between regular programmers in China and the United States is about 7 times, but in AI engineer positions, this gap has significantly decreased compared to the exchange rate between the Chinese Renminbi and the US Dollar. This means that Chinese AI engineers have a higher cost performance ratio than their American counterparts.