The 1990s Internet revolution unfolded in a unipolar world where American technology freely flowed across borders. Today’s AI revolution is emerging in a fractured, multipolar battlefield where technology has become the primary weapon of great power competition.
The US-China AI race isn’t just about economic competition; it’s about who controls the future of human civilization.
According to recent congressional testimony by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Huawei will produce only 200,000 AI chips in 2025, while China legally imported around 1 million downgraded NVIDIA chips in 2024.
These numbers reveal a strategic stranglehold, but also a ticking clock—China won’t remain dependent forever.
The export control regime has created what I call the “Innovation Paradox.” By restricting China’s access to cutting-edge chips, the US has inadvertently catalyzed a Chinese efficiency revolution.
Companies like DeepSeek are learning to “squeeze every IQ point out of every FLOP,” achieving competitive results with a fraction of the computational resources.
The constraints meant to slow China down may be forcing it to develop more efficient AI architectures that could ultimately leapfrog Western approaches.
Meanwhile, the US is architecting a new alliance structure fundamentally different from the globalization era. This isn’t about free trade and open borders—it’s about creating a technological sphere of influence where access to AI capabilities becomes the new currency of geopolitical alignment.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
