For decades, geopolitical power was defined by energy, military capability, economic influence, and physical resources.
Today, a new dimension of power is emerging:

The ability of a nation to develop, train, and operate advanced Artificial Intelligence systems.

This is the AI arms race — a competition for computational power, sovereign AI models, specialist chips, high-quality datasets, and secure national digital infrastructure.

Governments around the world are investing in:

• national supercomputers
• sovereign AI models
• cloud and data centers
• compute clusters for model training
• access to advanced GPUs
• digital governance frameworks
• secure data pipelines

And although this race happens at the level of nations and global institutions…
its consequences will be felt first inside cities.

1. Why governments are competing in Artificial Intelligence

Every major geopolitical power now views AI as critical national infrastructure.

The United States

• The CHIPS Act funds domestic chip manufacturing.
• Massive public investment in high-performance AI compute clusters.
• National initiatives for AI autonomy and AI security.

China

• The “AI 2030” strategy aims for global leadership.
• Development of domestic chip architectures.
• Huge state-controlled datasets for AI training.
• Large-scale digitised city operations centers.

European Union

• The AI Act sets the global safety and governance standard.
• World-class supercomputers (LUMI, Leonardo).
• Initiatives for sovereign cloud and European AI infrastructure.

United Arab Emirates

• Falcon LLM and city-wide AI deployment strategies.

Singapore

• AI embedded across national services: mobility, energy, waste, citizen services.

Across all these examples the message is clear:
AI capability is becoming a pillar of national power.

2. The real battlefield: compute, chips, and data pipelines

This isn’t a race about apps or features.
It’s a race about the digital backbone of nations.

2.1 Compute power

The ability to train modern foundation models requires enormous computational resources.
Countries with public AI clouds and sovereign compute clusters will lead the next decade.

2.2 Specialist chips (GPUs)

Access to advanced GPUs has become a new geopolitical lever — as critical as oil once was.

2.3 Clean and governed data

High-quality, legally compliant datasets are the “fuel” that separates reliable AI from risky AI.

2.4 Sovereign AI models

Nations want their own large-scale models to reduce dependency on foreign corporations.

3. Why the impact will be felt first inside cities

Cities are where national strategy becomes daily reality.

Everything passes through municipalities:

• waste management
• water and energy
• mobility
• environmental monitoring
• urban planning
• digital permitting
• public safety
• emergency response
• citizen services

If a nation underperforms in AI capability, the symptoms appear:

• in slow or fragmented municipal systems
• in data errors
• in legacy infrastructure
• in operational inefficiencies
• in rising service costs
• in slower decision-making cycles

Cities become the impact zone of global AI geopolitics.

4. The emerging divide: AI-rich cities vs AI-poor cities

This decade will not only divide nations.
It will divide cities.

AI-rich cities

• real-time analytics
• predictive public services
• event-driven operations
• intelligent waste routing
• self-optimising infrastructure
• automated compliance
• digital permitting
• coordinated emergency response

AI-poor cities

• manual processes
• delayed decisions
• outdated systems
• high operational costs
• fragmented data
• low service quality

The difference will not be ideological — it will be technological.

5. The invisible revolution: AI as infrastructure

The true transformation of AI will not happen on screens.
It will happen inside systems, silently.

Examples:

• waste collection optimized without human input
• energy grids that balance themselves
• environmental anomalies detected automatically
• water systems predicting failures
• public services verifying data before acquisition errors appear
• cities responding to events instead of waiting for complaints
• workflows adapting in real time
• transparency increased by intelligent compliance layers

This is AI as infrastructure — not as an app.

When AI becomes invisible, it becomes inevitable.

6. The cities that will thrive

The winners of the next decade will be cities that:

✔ treat AI as critical infrastructure

✔ invest in data integrity and governance

✔ deploy agent-based municipal systems

✔ build unified data platforms

✔ embrace event-driven architecture

✔ integrate national AI systems

✔ maintain real-time situational awareness

✔ automate compliance and service flows

Digital maturity will become a form of social equity.

The future of cities is being written now, not later

The global AI arms race is not just a geopolitical competition.
It is a transformation of how societies operate.

Countries will compete.
Corporations will innovate.
But cities will carry the impact — good or bad.

The question is not whether the world will adopt AI.

The question is:

**Will our cities lead this transformation —

or will they struggle to keep up with it?**