Follow the money: The chips powering AI
AI needs a complex supply chain built around advanced computer chips. We trace the journey from design, to manufacturing, and the critical machines that our lives now depend on.
Artificial intelligence is transforming industries and creating vast new fortunes. But behind every chatbot, image generator and AI model is a physical product: a semiconductor chip.
We trace the global supply chain powering the AI revolution. From the companies designing the world's most advanced chips, to the factories manufacturing them, and the specialist machines needed to produce them, we examine who is profiting from the surge in demand.
We also explore why so much of the world's most advanced chip production is concentrated in one place, Taiwan, and what that means for the global economy at a time of growing tensions between China and the West.
As governments compete for technological leadership and businesses spend billions on AI infrastructure, we ask a simple question: who is getting rich from the AI boom, and what happens if the supply chain breaks?
Presenter: Sam Fenwick
Producer: David Cann
(Photo: Holographic robot arms making semiconductor Credit:Yuichiro Chino / Getty Images)
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- Tue 23 Jun 202607:32GMTBBC World Service
- Tue 23 Jun 202614:32GMTBBC World Service
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