MacroPolo’s Global AI Talent Tracker collects information on the global AI workforce, in particular what it defines as AI researchers.   The trend has been and remains towards migration to the United States, both for education and work. It’s headline: “47%of the world’s top AI researchers were trained in China. 72% of them now work in the United States.”

The composition of US-based AI researchers shifted since 2010. In 2010, 40% of AI researchers at top US institutions were foreign-born. In 2024, it exceeded 65%. The shift is concentrated in machine learning and deep learning.

China is the largest source of AI professionals. Among China-educated AI researchers, 72% now work in the United States. The next largest sources are India (80% US-bound), South Korea (45% US-bound), and Europe (40% US-bound).

Among Chinese researchers,  the share of them who received their undergraduate education in China has risen to 38%.  But only 11% of China-educated researchers now work in China—72% work at institutions in the United States.

American institutions employ 59% of the researchers studied, and much of this workforce was educated abroad. About 80% of US-educated researchers remain in America, compared with 65% in Britain and 20% in India.

Go here for a 2021 posting on the AI workforce.