A Cold War Is Brewing Between the U.S. and China Over 5G and AI

Most recently, Chinese telecom equipment and consumer electronics giant Huawei filed suit against the U.S. government on Thursday, alleging that a law passed last August banning the company's hardware is unconstitutional because it unfairly targets Huawei. The arms race between the two superpowers over the tech talent, physical infrastructure and industrial muscle--not to mention the IP that comes with the technologies--that will unlock these advancements has been increasingly evident in diplomatic machinations, public investments of varying size and outward rhetoric from state leaders, as each country's government has moved the technologies to the top of their respective economic agendas. These struggles are about more than economic opportunity alone. The shift to 5G networks, which promise to eventually reach speeds up to 100 times faster than what's currently available, could expand the role of wireless communications systems into everything from power grids to traffic, while AI is already facilitating the mass collection and processing of data that will power critical tools like autonomous driving and facial recognition. In that future state, control over telecom equipment and AI-powered data centers could be like holding the keys to a society.