As AI reshapes the global balance of power, the infrastructure behind it—chips, data centers, power, and supply chains—has become a new arena for geopolitical competition. This talk explores how nations are racing to secure critical AI hardware, control compute capacity, and assert influence over the technologies and talent that define the future.

About Dylan Patel
Dylan is the founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst for SemiAnalysis, the preeminent authority on all things AI and semiconductors. Through Dylan’s unwavering commitment to excellence, he has built the firm from the ground up as the thought leader from the semiconductor supply chain to the cloud ecosystem, machine learning models, and all things in between. Since 2020, SemiAnalysis has transformed its business from a solo venture into a cohesive and focused team to provide breaking news and in-depth analysis for the most strategic, complex, and escalating challenges in the semiconductor industry.

Recorded at the AI Engineer World's Fair in San Francisco. Stay up to date on our upcoming events and content by joining our newsletter here: https://www.ai.engineer/newsletter

AI Engineer

Analysis of global AI infrastructure competition reveals China's ability to circumvent US sanctions through creative supply chain workarounds, while Huawei successfully engineers advanced chip architectures that Nvidia failed to productionize. Middle East countries are investing heavily in massive data centers (up to 5 gigawatts) to attract US AI companies, while America faces significant power grid constraints that limit domestic AI infrastructure expansion. The geopolitical AI race highlights fundamental infrastructure challenges where China excels at power generation and the Middle East provides capital, while the US struggles with regulatory and utility bottlenecks.

The Geopolitics of AI Infrastructure - Dylan Patel, SemiAnalysis