Remember when the government used to pretend it didn’t pick winners and losers? Yeah, those days are officially over. Welcome to what some folks are calling the “Technological Republic” – basically, Uncle Sam decided the invisible hand of the market was taking too long and switched to the iron fist of national security.
Here’s what happened: China got really good at AI, and suddenly Washington realized that maybe – just maybe – letting the market decide everything wasn’t such a hot idea when your biggest rival controls 90% of the rare earth minerals you need to build the future.
So now we’re in full “Command Economy for National Survival” mode. Don’t worry, they’re not seizing factories like some discount Stalin cosplay. Instead, they’re just telling Big Tech: “Build the most powerful AI infrastructure in human history, here’s unlimited money, and oh – don’t let anything stop you.”
The New Rules Are Simple:
Does your company help America dominate AI? Congratulations, here’s deregulation, subsidized capital, and the full weight of the U.S. military clearing your path.
Does it not? Enjoy your antitrust lawsuit.
This isn’t just policy wonk theater – it’s reshaping where the money flows. When unlimited capital chases scarce physical resources, prices go parabolic. And right now, we’re facing some serious bottlenecks.
The Six Choke Points That Matter:
1. Raw Materials: You can’t code copper or print lithium. We’re looking at a 10-million-ton copper deficit over the next decade. The dirt itself is now a strategic asset.
2. Power: AI is an energy vampire. These new data centers need 5 gigawatts each – that’s five nuclear reactors per campus. The grid is full, so Big Tech is building their own power plants.
3. Infrastructure: Those fancy new AI chips run so hot they’d melt a regular server room. We need liquid cooling, new transformers, and basically retrofit the entire internet.
4. Compute: It’s not just about getting GPUs anymore – it’s about the incredibly complex “packaging” that stitches chips and memory together. Taiwan basically has a monopoly on this magic.
5. Memory: AI chips without memory are useless. The new high-bandwidth memory is stacked like microscopic skyscrapers, and the global supply is sold out until 2027.
6. Networking: When you connect 100,000 GPUs, copper is too slow. Everything’s switching to fiber optics and lasers – and we’re short on lasers.
Look, I get it. This feels weird. We were taught that markets move on innovation and competition, not government picking favorites. But here’s the thing: when the U.S. decides it can’t afford to lose, ideology takes a back seat to execution. It happened with the Manhattan Project, the space race, and now the AI race.
The government has named its partners, cleared the obstacles, and started moving trillions of dollars. If your portfolio is still optimized for 2019 (hello, ESG-friendly consumer brands and crypto-fluff), you might want to rethink that strategy.
The train is leaving the station. You can wait for the CNBC segments and buy after the easy gains are gone, or you can recognize this for what it is: a government-led mobilization with clear winners and enormous financial consequences.
History shows where the real wealth gets created. And right now, it’s getting created at the choke points.