The Infrastructure Question: Who Controls the Compute Controls the Future

Sovereignty over AI is not determined by law, policy, or governance frameworks — it is determined by access to compute. This essay examines how physical infrastructure — semiconductors, data centers, energy, and the supply chains that connect them — constitutes the material foundation of AI power. Drawing on TSMC's structural position, U.S. chip export controls, and the experience of compute-dependent states in Central Asia, the essay argues that for most of the world, AI sovereignty is a legal fiction built on a material dependency. Compute is the cotton of the 21st century. Essay 10 of the series Beyond Control: Theory of Limits of AI Governance by Oybek Khodjaev (INVEXI LLC, Tashkent, Uzbekistan). Full text: https://okhodjaev.com/essays/the-infrastructure-question/