Billions - 22/01/2025

Billions

We’re throwing money at it. Billions.

A firehose of cash aimed at the AI future. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, they’re all in.

A land grab. A gold rush.

The US approach? More. More money. More resources. Bigger models.

A brute force attack on the problem. It’s the American way, isn’t it? Outspend, outmuscle. Dominate.

$500,000,000,000 for AI infrastructure buildout. That’s a lot of zeroes.

Given that AI and its infrastructure is the Manhattan Project of our time, it seems adequate.

But is it the right way?

Look across the ocean. China? Different game.

They’re not just throwing money. They’re squeezing.

Squeezing efficiency out of every byte. Fewer resources, comparable results. DeepSeek reportedly had a $12 million RL training budget for R1.

Models that are punching above their weight, with an API price that feels like a typo.

Right now, America’s playing the first game in AI. Google and Amazon just added a couple of billions to Anthropic. Microsoft already pledged $100B to OpenAI in 2025. And now this.

Meanwhile, China’s playing the second game. The efficiency game. The “do more with less” game.

This isn’t just about who gets there first. It’s about who gets there sustainably. It’s about who builds the foundation for the next revolution, not just the current one.

Innovation isn’t always about more. Often, it’s about less. Less waste. Less bloat. Less brute force.

It’s about finding the elegant solution. The efficient path. The core truth.

Are we so blinded by the dollar signs that we’re missing the real innovation happening elsewhere? Are we building an empire on sand, while others are building on Bedrock (pun intended)?

The race is on. But it’s not just a race to spend the most. It’s a race to think differently.

Will we learn to squeeze? Or will we just keep throwing money into the pit? The answer will shape the future. And not just the future of AI, either.

It will shape the future of everything.

P.S.

EU is still sitting in the corner, eating sand.