EP3-7 | OpenAI/AMD’s Chip Alliance, America’s New Tariff War, and the Fragmenting AI Supply Chain

This week, we trace two seismic shifts redefining both the AI race and the global economy.

OpenAI–AMD Alliance marks a structural realignment in the AI hardware landscape. The multi-year partnership grants OpenAI access to up to 6 GW of AMD’s next-generation Instinct accelerators—a move that diversifies its compute base beyond NVIDIA and positions AMD as a credible second supplier in the frontier-model era. The deal, which could add tens of billions in market value, signals a future where model developers and chipmakers are financially intertwined to secure compute sovereignty.

U.S.–China Trade Confrontation re-enters a critical phase as Washington moves to impose 100 percent tariffs on nearly all Chinese imports, citing Beijing’s rare-earth export restrictions as a strategic threat. The escalation threatens to fragment technology supply chains, drive inflationary pressure in the U.S., and accelerate the formation of rival industrial blocs—America’s “friend-shoring” network versus China’s Belt-and-Road manufacturing orbit.

Together, these developments expose a world where AI capacity, economic power, and geopolitical control are converging into the same equation—and where nations, companies, and investors must decide which ecosystem they belong to.