Kelly Hill
The latest AI sovereignty salvo
China announced a ban on Nvidia’s custom RTX Pro 6000D chips for the Chinese market, marking a turning point in the race for AI dominance: Faced with being cut off or restricted from U.S. advanced chip supplies, Beijing would rather turn to its domestic alternatives, so it is forcing tech giants like Alibaba and ByteDance to pivot from reliance on U.S. semiconductors. This latest move goes beyond previous guidance on Nvidia’s H20 AI chip. Nvidia CEO told reporters in London: “We can only be of service of a market if the country wants us to be. … I’m disappointed with what I see. But they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that.” Nvidia, he added, is “patient about it.” At the same time, Tencent Cloud is committing to use Chinese-designed AI chips across its infrastructure, reinforcing Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, Western players are still investing in infrastructure abroad — from Google’s £5B U.K. data center to Keppel and Dell’s energy-efficient projects in Asia. If you’re an AI player, the message is mixed: Clearly, global AI growth isn’t just about scale, it’s also about sovereignty. But investment is investment, and most countries will take whatever they can get. Read all the latest (including a fascinating look at xAI’s data center power strategy) below.
Kelly Hill
Executive Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top 3
Tencent backs local AI chips: Tencent Cloud has committed to using Chinese-designed AI chips across its infrastructure, strengthening Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency.
Google’s £5bn UK bet: Google has opened a new £5 billion data center in Waltham Cross, boosting UK AI capacity, securing clean energy with Shell, and supporting job creation and digital skills across the country.
Keppel, Dell target AI growth: Keppel has signed a new framework deal with Dell to jointly develop energy-efficient data centers and AI platforms across Asia, starting with projects in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
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AI Today: What You Need to Know
China bans Nvidia chips: The latest move in the battle for AI has China banning major tech firms from buying Nvidia’s China-only AI chips. This is halting orders and testing, and investors sent Nvidia shares down in response.
xAI’s powerhouse: SemiAnalysis looks at xAI’s infrastructure strategy with its Colossus 1 — which set records as the largest single AI cluster — and Colossus 2 projects, including how xAI built out data center power in months rather than years.
Many hats for AI: New research from Pew shows that Americans are wary of AI’s growing influence in society, fearing harm to creativity and relationships but cautiously welcoming its use in tasks like forecasting, medicine, and data analysis.
WTO on AI: A WTO report finds that AI could raise global trade nearly 40% by 2040. But close attention and work is needed to bridge digital divides, invest in people’s skills, and maintain open and predictable trade and investment policies.
AI skills in demand: According to analysis of job postings of major IT employers from mid-2024 to mid-2025 across G7 countries, seven of the 10 fastest-growing ICT roles are AI-related and “AI skills are now pervasive for tech jobs.”
Importance of policy: Data center demand and energy constraints are making government policy increasingly crucial, because streamlined interconnection, permitting, and standards help to reduce outages, costs, and deployment delays.
Bayer’s AI stories: Life sciences firm Bayer has applied AI to accelerate herbicide discovery in crop science and streamline clinical trial analytics in pharmaceuticals. Here’s a blog about its efforts from US AI market research and advisory firm Emerj.
A $2T revolution: Agentic AI and “vibe coding” promise to transform manufacturing, creating agile smart factories where human expertise pairs with autonomous systems, reshaping production and software development.
Pharma AI goes west: After pharma firms Merck and AstraZeneca both scrapped big R&D plans for U.K. investments in AI factories, the U.K.’s own GSK has announced it will invest $30B in the U.S. instead, in order to fund new AI tools.
Nordic infra: The Nordics are emerging as a global AI infrastructure hub, attracting massive investments thanks to renewable energy, stable grids, cool climate, and strong political and economic stability.
