Global power is usually discussed in terms of military, currencies, demographics, commerce. However, in this new world, the real battleground is less visible and far more technical: semiconductors and compute power.

In the 20th century, oil and steel defined power.
In the 21st, compute capacity does.

Not as a metaphor, but as a structural fact.

Artificial intelligence, modern warfare, logistics, financial modeling, surveillance, and industrial automation all converge on the same constraint: access to advanced chips, software ecosystems, and manufacturing capacity.

Those who control this filed are a small pantheon of Gods. Their traits resemble those of Greek deities:

• near-absolute monopolies

• hidden and irreproducible knowledge

• enormous capital requirements

• timelines measured in decades

These quasi-divine companies not only control the markets; they define what is technologically possible at the higher level.

NVIDIA, TSMC, AMD, and ASML are the new Pantheon. Together, they form the backbone of modern computing and the guardians of geopolitical order.

The Four Gods: 

NVIDIA - The God of Parallelism and Software - designs GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), but think of modern GPUs as parallel computing engines. They handle thousands of operations simultaneously. NVIDIA’s biggest advantage is not software, is CUDA, its proprietary software ecosystem. CUDA allows developers to write AI and HPC software optimized for NVIDIA chips, creating a soft lock between Nvidia and developers, which would face great costs in trying to pass to Nvidia competitors. 

AMD - The Divine Balancer - (Advanced Micro Devices) is a chip designer, not a manufacturer. AMD designs advanced chips. Flexibility and excellency are their forte. AMD represents systemic redundancy. It prevents the compute ecosystem from collapsing into a single-vendor dependency.

TSMC -The God of Fabrication - is the partner in crime of AMD. They are the top manufacturer of chips and semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, now you can see why the two world giants have all eyes on Taiwan. This modern Ephesus produces chips at nodes no competitor can reliably match at scale.

ASML - The God of Creation - is the only company capable of producing EUV lithography machines, without which advanced chips cannot be made. The real monopoly. No alternatives, no competitors. There is no one else. The investment needed to make a similar company is stellar, the technology needed is top-notch, the timeline is in decades. It's truly the most important Company in the world, a true monopoly rooted in physics, not regulation.

That a Dutch company holds this position is one of the greatest strategic advantages of the West in thye competition with China. EUV machines cannot be exported to China. They are too large to smuggle, too complex to reverse-engineer, too slow to reproduce.

In short:

- NVIDIA controls GPU

- AMD designs better chips and preserves systemic balance

- TSMC controls the manufacturing

- ASML creates the factory 

This structure favors the United States and its allies, for now.
But it also means that global power is increasingly decided by a handful of companies. 

Where Gods meets Demigods: 

NVIDIA acts differently from the other three companies. The others bathe in their role, Nvidia actively invests in its customers and ecosystem. The point is not only in selling chips, is shaping the demand. Forcing the adoption of CUDA creates an artificial monopoly.

There are also financial reasons to do so. Microsoft, Oracle and OpenAI are all tied to Nvidia and among themselves with a web of orders and fundings. Their value is artificially pumped, their market shares are increased by this system.

Considering the strategical importance of these Companies, I'm not sure how to consider these interactions. Is there a risk or the AI potential justifies the existence of this cartel ? Are they abusing of statal protection or are they already so important to dictate state guidelines ? Is this concentration a sign of strength or a form of fragility? 

Ragnarok

The modern Olympus is impressive.

The Gods bestow their power to Washington. It's dominance is now based on a narrow vertical of compute, chips, software.

But even gods, in mythology, were never invincible. The Titans of old made them tremble. Maybe computing power can be beaten by brute force. 

I'm not sure we will be alive to see the outcome.

END

Hope you enjoyed, with love and fear,

Lazy 

PS

inspired by conversation with my buddy Alberto and by this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6eXTvqdaro