Overview
- Analysts say U.S. growth of the physical infrastructure that powers advanced AI—chips, servers, data centers and reliable energy—is slowing because of local zoning rules, environmental permits and long grid interconnection timelines.
- China has accelerated state-backed buildout of large compute campuses and cloud capacity, narrowing the window in which the United States can shape global AI infrastructure.
- Policy proposals from think tanks and former officials center on a ‘Tech West’ strategy that lets allies buy U.S. chips and cloud services while imposing technical and contractual controls to stop diversion to China.
- Recommended controls include limits on remote access, strict customer verification for hosted services, and export conditions tied to enforcement by partner countries and cloud providers.
- Adoption of the proposals would hinge on diplomacy, new legislation and stronger enforcement, and they could shift jobs, energy demand and local community impacts to allied countries that host new data centers.