Bullets:
AI Data Center infrastructure investments in the United States are far larger than canals, railroads, the highway system, electrification, and the internet.
But the nature of AI itself argues that most of the global compute will be performed in low-cost data centers, now under construction in China and Southeast Asia.
Asia is also where the users are: the massive population centers, the industrial capacity, mines, logistics and ports, and advanced manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
AI tasks that demand low latency and superfast reaction times will require data centers to be as close as possible to the end user. So North American facilities are still needed for apps such as self-driving cars, smart grids, and real-time translation tools.
But Asia will require the same, for its most time-sensitive applications.
For batch processing and the highest value-added activities, however, the lowest-cost centers will take market share from other regions as soon as they come online.
Closing scene, Xiandu Scenic Area, Zhejiang
Resources and links:
The AI Build-Out Is Becoming the Biggest Economic Bet in U.S. History
https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-ai-build-out-is-becoming-the-biggest-economic-bet-in-u-s-history-c60716dd
The Impending, Inescapable Deluge of A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/29/technology/ai-chips-data-center-boom.html
How One Country Became the Unlikely Crossroads of the Global A.I. Boom
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/30/business/malaysia-data-center-china.html
Malaysia’s data centre construction costs hit US$12 mil per MW amid AI infrastructure boom, says real estate firm
https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/798258
Malaysia approves 27 data center projects worth US$55.4 billion
https://datacenters.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/investments-deals/malaysia-approves-27-data-center-projects-worth-us55-4-billion/134967164
The Yuxi Circle: The World’s Most Densely Populated Area
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/the-yuxi-circle-the-worlds-most-densely-populated-area/
Multi-Region LLM Inference: How to Optimize Latency for Global AI Applications
https://www.gmicloud.ai/en/blog/multi-region-llm-inference-how-to-optimize-latency-for-global-ai-applications
How to Build an AI Data Center in 2026 (and What It Actually Costs)
https://millionminer.com/news/how-to-build-an-ai-data-center
The AI industry in the US is doomed. Now China owns it all.
API production by volume
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Global-production-of-Active-Pharmaceutical-Ingredients-API-The-graph-represents-the/_fig1/_351478239
China Upends Global Drug Development With Cheap and Rapid Human Trials
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-10-29/china-s-speed-in-clinical-trials-draws-drugmakers-roche-astrazeneca-novartis
Mapped: The World’s Data Centers by Country (2026)
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-countries-with-most-data-centers/
China explores new AI ‘Silk Road’ with token outbound
https://interestingengineering.com/inside-china/china-explores-new-ai-silk-road-with-token-outbound
We were wrong about DeepSeek. Now Chinese AI companies export trillions of AI tokens.
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