MIT Technology Review January 21, 2026
The world is too interconnected for nations to go it alone. But they can specialize.
Governments plan to pour $1.3 trillion into AI infrastructure by 2030 to invest in “sovereign AI,” with the premise being that countries should be in control of their own AI capabilities. The funds include financing for domestic data centers, locally trained models, independent supply chains, and national talent pipelines. This is a response to real shocks: covid-era supply chain breakdowns, rising geopolitical tensions, and the war in Ukraine.
But the pursuit of absolute autonomy is running into reality. AI supply chains are irreducibly global: Chips are designed in the US and manufactured in East Asia; models are trained on data sets drawn from...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor