The purpose of this article is to compare the two biggest economies in the world, USA and China, regarding innovation. It starts defining what innovation is, where the value of it resides, and sharing expert's opinions about who is leading. The innovation systems of both countries have been analyzed, including the finance, intellectual property, and education. Furthermore, some results from different sectors have been also compared, such as artificial intelligence, wind power, or smart grid technologies; as well as differences in human resources approach. The conclusion is that USA is clearly ahead of China, but China is cutting distances quickly, although the development in China is impulse by the state and this generates some doubts about the real productivity of it.