Hosts consider whether a slower data-center buildout would change competition with China

The hosts relayed Ben Thompson’s view that China faces the inverse situation: it has ample power and the ability to build more facilities, but lacks leading-edge chips and is investing in that area. They questioned how persuasive the China-competition argument would be if the United States slowed data-center construction. In their view, the prospect of losing ground to China is often raised in response to calls to slow AI development for safety reasons. The hosts suggested that a slowdown might have little effect if projects simply move to other states or regions; the actual scale of any slowdown and the response to it remain uncertain.