Jared Cohen
Anjali Sundaram | CNBC
Data centers are a critical part of artificial intelligence infrastructure. says their presence around the world could have lasting geopolitical implications for the United States Goldman Sachs President of Global Affairs.
Jared Cohen, former CEO Google’s Jigsaw, now co-director of the Goldman Sachs Global Institute, offers a new perspective comparing the momentum of artificial intelligence to the next industrial revolution. Column This week in foreign policy. Within this wave of technology, he writes, there is an opportunity for “data-centric diplomacy.”
“This technology is comparable to the birth of the Internet, it’s just that it happened much more suddenly,” Cohen told CNBC. “Data may be the new oil, and ultimately it’s the state that determines the future of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Not natural.”
Artificial intelligence relies on large amounts of data for training and huge data centers. Big tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Yuan Invest huge sums of money in building infrastructure, and plans to invest approximately $600 billion in these efforts over the next three years, according to Goldman Sachs.
The key geopolitical factor is China. Despite the economic slowdown, Beijing has been investing in artificial intelligence data centers and launched a $6.1 billion national program called “Data from the East, Compute from the West.” The United States has its own set of initiatives, including the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Task Force.
Countries with money to spend face a “binary” choice when it comes to investing in artificial intelligence: the United States or China. Cohen said that while the United States is still leading in artificial intelligence, data center construction has become a “bottleneck” and “the United States is going to have to have some kind of overflow option to meet the demand.”
The United States has already established cooperative relationships with countries such as Canada, Australia, and France. But the alternative is what Cohen calls “geopolitical swing countries”, or countries that “have a disproportionate amount of capital and are willing to deploy capital around the world” and are more inclined to turn to China. He sees the Middle East as an important partner.
The influx of capital into the oil-rich Gulf states and the need to diversify their economies has made them rivals for capital-intensive AI ventures. Approximately $11.3 trillion manager Sovereign funds, five of the ten most active sovereign funds are located in the Gulf countries of the Middle East. They have become bosses supporter Some of Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence darlings, from OpenAI to Anthropic.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia may be best positioned to build data center capabilities and “do it very quickly,” Cohen said.
“The Arab Gulf states of the Middle East offer many promising opportunities for artificial intelligence data centers,” Cohen wrote. “Led by young and ambitious leaders, these countries aim to export not just oil but artificial intelligence as well. As one prominent official from the United Arab Emirates recently stated emphasize“We missed the first industrial revolution, but we didn’t miss the artificial intelligence revolution.”
watch: Middle East funds flow into artificial intelligence field
