The Geopolitics of Computational and Energy Resources

If AI is going to change the structure of the world, where will it begin?
To answer that, we need to start by redefining two things: computational resources and energy resources.

In the past, nuclear power was at the heart of national strategy. It was a weapon, a power source, and a diplomatic lever.
Today, in the age of AI, “computational resources” (GPUs) and “energy resources” (electricity) are beginning to hold the same level of geopolitical significance.

Running advanced AI systems requires enormous amounts of GPUs and electricity.
And considering the scale of influence that AI can have on economies and national security, it’s only natural that nations are now competing to secure these resources.

Take the semiconductor supply chain as an example. The United States, which effectively dominates the market for high-end chips, has restricted exports in an effort to contain China’s AI development. Sanctions against Huawei are a symbol of that policy, and the continued efforts to lock down TSMC are part of the same strategy.

So how did China respond? They chose to forgo access to high-end GPUs and instead opted to compensate with sheer volume and energy. Even at the cost of environmental impact, they prioritized securing power and running models at scale.
They’re also initiating a paradigm shift in quantity: facing the reality of only having outdated chips, they’ve poured massive human resources into optimizing software at every layer to eliminate waste and unlock surprising efficiency.

At this point, society has already entered a phase where computational and energy resources are being redefined as weapons.
Training AI models is not just a matter of science—it’s information warfare, monetary policy, and infrastructure control rolled into one.

This is why many governments no longer have the luxury of discussing energy policy through the lens of environmental protection alone. In early 2025, the U.S. appears to be a prime example of this. “Let us use all available electricity for AI”—that seems to be the unspoken truth at the national level.

Like nuclear power, AI is an irreversible technology. Once a model begins to run, it cannot simply be turned off. You need electricity, you need cooling, you need infrastructure.
These are not optional.