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April 22, 20260 citationsOpen Access

The Infrastructure Question: Who Controls the Compute Controls the Future

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OKOybek Khodjaev

Key Points

  • The central aim of the essay is to assess how access to physical computing infrastructure influences AI sovereignty.
  • Analyzed the role of semiconductors, data centers, and energy in AI power.
  • Examined TSMC's influence, U.S. chip export controls, and Central Asian states' dependencies.
  • Utilized a structural framework to evaluate the implications of computing access on sovereignty.
  • Argues that AI sovereignty is largely a fictional concept based on material dependencies.
  • Demonstrates that access to compute resources is crucial for national power in AI.
  • Compares compute to cotton in historical economic contexts, emphasizing its value.

Abstract

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/

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Cite This Study

Oybek Khodjaev (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69e865d76e0dea528ddea588https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19664875
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