Open weights are helping keep the American and Chinese AI markets connected. That might not last if Chinese labs can train frontier models on domestic hardware. Chinese AI models don’t need to be hosted by Chinese companies to compete overseas. Western companies and cloud providers can run open weight models on their own servers instead. Greater independence from Western hardware could make China more willing to accept a split and restrict access to its models abroad. The US could close the connection from the other side by limiting where Chinese models can be hosted. Closing this connection could make compliance easier for regulated Western companies, but it would reduce competition. That could end up pushing mid-market AI prices higher over time.