Sovereignty Costs Trillions

When the Biden administration unveiled sweeping export controls on advanced AI chips in October 2022, targeting China's access to cutting-edge semiconductors, it triggered a chain reaction that continues to reshape the global technology landscape. These restrictions, subsequently expanded in October 2023 and December 2024, represent far more than trade policy. They constitute a fundamental reorganisation of the technological substrate upon which artificial intelligence depends, forcing nations, corporations, and startups to reconsider everything from supply chain relationships to the very architecture of sovereign computing. The December 2024 controls marked a particularly aggressive escalation, adding 140 companies to the Entity List and, for the first time, imposing country-wide restrictions on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) exports to China. The Bureau of Industry and Security strengthened these controls by restricting 24 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and three types o