Nations worldwide are engaged in an AI race, determining the future of economic competitiveness, national security and societal paradigms. This race requires a massive infrastructure build-out, supported by some public policies and potentially hindered by others. The US has established an early lead in developing data centers to support AI, but China is not far behind. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the two markets suggests a potentially close finish in the home stretch for AI advantage.
Major powers are eager to achieve AI dominance
Like other transformative technological breakthroughs before it — including the steam engine, electricity and the internet — AI could alter human interactions, conditions and behaviors, reshaping global commerce and international relations yet again. If the past is any indication, effectively developing and regulating the emerging technology will give those that prevail an edge in economic competitiveness, national security and soft power. Maintaining technological leadership is therefore a key priority for the world’s leading powers.
Strategic implications
Promoting and supporting adequate data center infrastructure represents a major policy focus for world powers wishing to remain at the forefront of the AI revolution. Performance, costs and acceptance are key. Achieving a dominant position in AI technology could confer decisive global sway, possibly determining the shape of globalization. Conversely, a scenario with no clear winner, where competing systems coexist globally, could result in a compatible multipolarity, but could also revert the world to the “bloc” dynamics of the Cold War era, with fragmented approaches to data sovereignty.
World leaders recognize the crucial implications. In “America’s AI Action Plan,” released in July 2025, US President Donald Trump states, “It is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance.” Meanwhile, the Chinese State Council’s August 2025 “Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ‘Artificial Intelligence Plus’ Action Plan” notes that AI presents the opportunity to reshape “the paradigm of human production and life, promoting a revolutionary leap in productivity, and profound changes in production relations.” Even as far back as September 2017, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin declared in a televised address that “whoever becomes the leader in [AI] will become ruler of the world.” Read the rest of this Article >>
