Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said he expects China to be “at the forefront” of artificial intelligence, and said it’s important for the US to collaborate with the Asian nation on both regulation and innovation.

“The scale of AI research in China is just astounding to see,” he said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, in an on-stage interview by Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. “China is going to be at the forefront of AI and that’s a given.”

That’s going to require a strong working relationship, he added. “No way you make progress over the long term without China and the US deeply talking to each other on something like AI,” he said. “It has got to be an integral part of the process.”

Executives from Microsoft Corp., Citigroup Inc., Tesla Inc. and other large multinationals are meeting this week in San Francisco with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Asian leaders, as well as US President Joe Biden.