The new oil fields: Why data centres are becoming strategic assets

For more than a century, oil determined the global balance of power. Nations with vast hydrocarbon reserves wielded strategic influence, while major powers designed foreign policies around securing access to energy supplies. The Middle East occupied a central place in this geopolitical order because it possessed the resource that fuelled industrial civilisation. Today, however, the foundations of power are beginning to shift. While oil remains vital to the global economy, a new strategic asset is rapidly emerging alongside it: data centres. At first glance, comparing a data centre to an oil field may seem exaggerated. Yet both serve a similar function in their respective eras. Oil powered the industrial age; data centres power the age of artificial intelligence. The countries […]