Compute is not an input to the argument about artificial intelligence. It is the argument.
Concentration
Capability now tracks industrial access more closely than it tracks research talent. A state that rents its inference capacity inherits someone else's ceiling and someone else's timetable.
Control
Export control is the visible instrument. The durable one is manufacturing depth, which no policy instrument can substitute for on a five-year horizon.
Capacity
Sovereign capacity is unglamorous work: fabrication, power, cooling, and the people who can operate all three under pressure.