Summary of DIGITAL STORM Weekly Newsletter by Dr. Joerg Storm
Title: “The AI Divide Is Real — And It’s Reshaping Global Power, Strategy, and ROI“

Dr. Joerg Storm’s latest issue of DIGITAL STORM Weekly (#119b) underscores a stark and growing imbalance in the global AI landscape. Titled “The AI Divide Is Real”, the newsletter warns that artificial intelligence is not just shaping industries but is now actively redrawing the global map of power and influence.

At the core of this divide is compute power—the infrastructure, hardware, and energy required to train and run advanced AI models. Dr. Storm refers to compute as “the new oil,” suggesting it has become the most critical and strategic resource of the digital age. The newsletter points out a chilling fact: only 32 countries worldwide have the capability to train frontier AI models, while the vast majority—especially in the Global South—are left on the sidelines, unable to participate meaningfully in the AI race.

The United States and China dominate this new world order. U.S.-based tech companies control 87 top-tier AI hubs, and China follows with 39. In sharp contrast, Europe holds only 6, and Africa and South America are virtually absent from the frontier AI ecosystem. This lopsided distribution of resources is creating a digital aristocracy, where a handful of nations and corporations dictate the pace, direction, and rules of AI development and deployment.

One of the most striking examples of AI-driven power consolidation is OpenAI’s $60 billion megasite in Texas, which even includes its own gas plant—highlighting the extraordinary energy demands of state-of-the-art AI infrastructure. Such initiatives are not only massive in scale but also geographically and economically exclusive, further deepening the gap between AI haves and have-nots.

The newsletter also emphasizes how export controls, chip shortages, and hardware hoarding are transforming AI access into a geopolitical weapon. These restrictions act as digital embargoes, locking out emerging nations from the tools they need to compete in the AI economy. As a result, startups and talented individuals in the Global South are throttled by high latency, prohibitive costs, and inadequate infrastructure—further entrenching global inequalities.

Dr. Storm closes with a powerful warning: nations without compute power risk becoming “renters” in the future AI-driven economy, dependent on others for critical technologies and decision-making tools. Meanwhile, what he terms the “Compute North” continues to drill deeper into an AI-rich future, consolidating its dominance across innovation, economy, and strategic influence.

In essence, this issue of DIGITAL STORM presents AI not just as a technological revolution, but as a reshaper of global economics and politics—where access to compute defines sovereignty, progress, and survival in the digital age.

drstorm.substack.com

The AI Divide Is Real — And It’s Reshaping Global Power, Strategy, and ROI #119b

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