Alarmed by the strides China has made in modernising its navy and its missile fleet, especially the burgeoning category of hypersonic missiles, the United States has pivoted and is pouring large sums of money into its military to make sure China does not steam ahead.

But while this direct arms race is the one that can be easily seen, today’s modern military landscape means that this arms race is perhaps most fiercely fought in the field of computing, technology, and especially its cutting edge, where the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning really reside. Gone are the days when oil was the most fought-after resource in the world. Currently, China and the United States are engaged in a war over chips, especially highly advanced microchips that are extremely difficult to make. At this cutting edge of microchip technology lies only one company in the world, and that is Taiwan’s TSMC. The United States has imposed a strict embargo preventing China from accessing the most advanced technology and ensuring it does not have access to the machinery that allows for such chips to be manufactured.

China, on the other hand, is doing exactly that, securing technology, enticing other companies, and pouring billions of dollars itself to try to catch up to Taiwan, and by extension, the United States and the West. But the United States is also not putting all its eggs in the Taiwanese basket, knowing how crucial Taiwan is to the one-China policy. The United States is also investing in its own stateside manufacturing plants.

Both are also pouring billions of dollars into developing the software side of AI technology, whether to allow weapons greater autonomy, to make better security and intelligence-based decisions, or to support any other military application engineers can imagine. Both of the world’s superpowers are chasing after the AI magic bullet. It seems as though we are back in the heyday of the Cold War, but instead of the nuclear weapon, it is the silicon weapon that is being sought after.