The US is losing its edge when it comes to AI talent, according to a new report. The influx of new AI workers to the United States has dwindled to nothing.
Technically, the US hasn’t yet started losing AI talent to other countries, but it has reached the “break even” point, where the amount of top talent coming into the country matches the amount that is leaving.
Given the US’s historical role as the biggest attractor of AI talent, the negative trend seems clear. Here are all the new data-driven insights to know.
US Heads in the Wrong Direction on AI
Data intelligence company Zeki Data just dropped its latest analysis: The 2025 State of AI Talent Report pulls data on around 800,000 individuals working in AI today across 115 countries, with the notable exception of China. The study draws on “30,000 sources of open-access data to plot each individual’s levels of performance and teamwork, career path, influence, reputation and evolving skills.”
That’s a larger sample size than you typically see with similar industry studies, so it bolsters the impact of their findings. The biggest takeaway? The US is losing its edge when it comes to AI research.
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The report’s topline summary explains that the best AI talent around the world used to make the US their top destination of choice. Now, that’s set to change.
“Talent from overseas has enabled the US to build and maintain its dominance in AI. This supply chain is drying up rapidly as Top AI Talent is no longer incentivized to move to the US. We expect this trend to accelerate, with long-term negative economic consequences for the US.”
Why? Funding Cuts and Job Loss
In the very recent past, the size and strength of the AI industry within the US was enough to make it the default destination for a wide range of AI workers that were serious about growing their careers. So what changed?
According to the report, the decline is due in part to three factors: Cuts to federal science funding, reductions in hiring from big corporations, and “a pivot towards homegrown sovereign AI.”
A few big changes made this year haven’t helped, such as the February 2025 budget cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), two major sources of public grants for AI research.
According to one key chart from the report, however, the decline in talent headed to the US first started back in late 2022 and has only accelerated since then. Now, we’ve finally reached the point where the amount of talent leaving the US is matching the amount that’s moving to the US, with a trend heading towards a future of brain drain.
Other AI Talent Winners and Losers
The report has a host of additional fascinating takeaway, too. First, they predict India will stop exporting talent and start gaining it instead. Major players in Europe and the Gulf States will also benefit, spurring investments in those countries.
Within the US, Google will come out ahead, taking “the dominant share of top LLM developers,” thanks to its current 35% market share, which positions it for long-term dominance in the AI space. Competitors OpenAI and Meta are not as well positioned.
Similarly, NVIDIA’s dominance will help it stay afloat as well, so the massive AI chip company is expected to keep attracting top talent.
Medical research, however, won’t do so well: “Technology companies will continue to recruit neuroscience and DNA nanotechnology experts at an alarming rate, putting medical research in these fields at a distinct disadvantage,” the report explains. In contrast, the defense sector will keep chugging along with autonomous warfare development.
