There was no shortage of AI talk at Davos, but one theme stood out — the race to power AI. Compute is scaling faster than energy systems, and regions are diverging sharply in how they plan to fuel growth:
- North America leads on funding and frontier models, but grid constraints are pushing renewed nuclear interest and other power sources to support AI compute in the US.
- Asian countries combine high AI adoption and workforce enthusiasm with China’s focus on applied AI and renewable buildout.
- Middle East has capital, cheap energy, and centralized decision-making — and is using them to buy into the AI race and build at considerable speed.
- Europe is progressing on adoption and leading on governance, but lags on investment and faces structural energy headwinds (from high costs to grid queues), with no quick fix in sight.
Investment and talent signal intent. Infrastructure determines who can deliver.
Find out more about how countries navigate AI in a geopolitical-first world and how workers and consumers interact with AI.
