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In 2025, the AI race erupted into a battleground between the U.S. and China. Semiconductors – the essential building blocks of chips – leapt to front page news as they were conspicuously spared by Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, only to be hit with a national-security probe two weeks later. Washington is now mulling 100% duties on chip imports from non-U.S. firms, while Beijing flexes its diplomatic and economic muscle to expand its hold on the semiconductor chain in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Semiconductors have become the oil of the AI age – symbols of power, politics and progress. While Taiwan is the undisputed capital of chip-making, governments worldwide are now shoveling billions into establishing domestic fabs and luring massive data-center projects, hoping to cement themselves as AI and business hubs.
These facilities’ vast appetite for electricity is reshaping power geographies, with states and corporations partnering on projects from the Nordics to rising hubs in Malaysia, Morocco and South Africa.
Meanwhile, inside boardrooms, 82 percent of executives say scaling AI is a top priority (MIT). And the latest buzzword isn’t chatbot, it’s agents – autonomous systems that deduce, plan and act. But these AI tools are also arming cyber criminals, with sophisticated, machine-speed attacks targeting new vulnerabilities.
Here, we trace the chain from end to end – from infra trends to chip design, and the software reshaping business models – to find out who is setting the pace, and how, in the global tech race.
Josh Parker, CSO, NVIDIA. Credit: Courtesy of NVIDIA. Josh Parker, CSO, NVIDIA. Credit: Courtesy of NVIDIA. AI is probably the most democratizing technology ever developed–which means small teams and even individuals are empowered to do more with less, and to test new ideas. We’re really living in the Cambrian explosion of tech, and there are more opportunities than ever for positive, innovative disruption.
Josh Parker, CSO, NVIDIA
Tanuja Randery, EMEA Managing Director, AWS Tanuja Randery, EMEA Managing Director, AWS We are heading toward a future where humans and agents work side by side to execute tasks — whether that is shopping, back-to-school planning, or optimizing agriculture.
This report has been paid for by a third party. The views and opinions expressed are not those of Newsweek and are not an endorsement of the products, services or persons mentioned.
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