{"id":181440,"date":"2025-11-02T09:17:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/from-the-low-cost-chinese-ai-thats-taking-over-in-africa-to-the-k-economy-in-the-u-s-where-some-sleep-in-mansions-and-others-in-their-cars\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T09:17:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:17:44","slug":"from-the-low-cost-chinese-ai-thats-taking-over-in-africa-to-the-k-economy-in-the-u-s-where-some-sleep-in-mansions-and-others-in-their-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/from-the-low-cost-chinese-ai-thats-taking-over-in-africa-to-the-k-economy-in-the-u-s-where-some-sleep-in-mansions-and-others-in-their-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"From the low-cost Chinese AI that’s taking over in Africa to the “K economy” in the U.S., where some sleep in mansions and others in their cars."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The \u00a0internet\u00a0 contributes \u00a0\u20ac4.2 trillion\u00a0 annually to the GDP of the United States, yet a mere \u00a0\u20ac141,000\u00a0 (a staggering \u00a097%\u00a0 less) to the entire African continent, which has a population four times that of the U.S. Given this dramatic scale difference, it is unsurprising that \u00a0U.S. AI companies\u00a0 show little interest in the African market. However, this business decision raises concerns in both the \u00a0U.S.\u00a0 and the \u00a0EU\u00a0, as Chinese chatbots, particularly \u00a0DeepSeek\u00a0, have filled the void left by \u00a0ChatGPT\u00a0, \u00a0Perplexity\u00a0, \u00a0Gemini\u00a0, and \u00a0Copilot\u00a0 in Africa. With substantial subsidies backing it, Chinese AI has a foothold on the continent, often thanks to companies like \u00a0Huawei\u00a0, which are closely aligned with the Chinese military. Moreover, given China’s prior investment in Africa’s telecommunications infrastructure, its products, although inferior to U.S. offerings, are cheaper, consume less energy, and are \u00a0open source\u00a0, allowing clients to develop their own models.<\/p>\n

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The ‘K Economy’ of the U.S.: Some Sleep in Mansions, Others in Cars<\/h2>\n

Previously, the term \u00a0K economy\u00a0 referred to the \u00a0Knowledge Economy\u00a0. Now, it hints at a significant historical phenomenon: the division of the U.S., the world’s largest economy, into two. The upward leg of the K comprises the \u00a0top 20%\u00a0 of wealth-holders whose income derives from capital gains, which have been rising since \u00a02009\u00a0. The downward trend involves workers, often in desperate situations, exemplified by the \u00a040% to 60%\u00a0 of the homeless in the U.S. who hold jobs but cannot afford housing, resorting instead to sleeping in cars or shelters. Indeed, if this \u00a080%\u00a0 were a nation, it would be in recession. However, the \u00a0top 20%\u00a0 is performing so well economically that it alone drives the world’s largest GDP upwards. Hedge fund guru \u00a0Ray Dalio\u00a0 of \u00a0Bridgewater\u00a0 has noted that the U.S. is becoming an economy reliant on \u00a01%\u00a0 of its population while effectively sidelining the \u00a060%\u00a0.<\/p>\n

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Europe Responds to Musk and Trump by Uniting Governments and Semi-Public Enterprises<\/h2>\n

In light of the \u00a0capriciousness\u00a0 (to put it mildly) of \u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0 and \u00a0Elon Musk\u00a0, Europe has felt compelled to create its own space giant. The strategy employs its preferred formula: merging the space divisions of various national champions to generate a European titan, enabling governments to have significant influence. The result is a coalition of semi-public enterprises including \u00a0Leonardo\u00a0 (Italy), \u00a0Thales\u00a0 (France), and \u00a0Airbus\u00a0 (Franco-German, with minor involvement from Spain) combining their space divisions. The new entity, yet unnamed and not expected to launch until \u00a02027\u00a0, currently generates only \u00a040%\u00a0 of the revenue that \u00a0SpaceX\u00a0, run by \u00a0Elon Musk\u00a0, garners, clearly the leader in the emerging space industry. Furthermore, the European Commission harbors suspicions, fearing that they may be witnessing the birth of a \u00a0monopoly\u00a0 supported by governments which could crush any emerging private competitors.<\/p>\n

Vulture Funds to Build Future Barracks for the U.S. Military<\/h2>\n

Is it modernization, pragmatism, or the birth of a new \u00a0oligarchy\u00a0? The jury is still out. The facts are as follows: the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, \u00a0Steve Feinberg\u00a0, who wields real power in that department, has never held a public office. His career has been entrenched in \u00a0private equity\u00a0, where he co-founded the giant \u00a0Cerberus\u00a0, which reportedly owns over 4,000 rental properties in Spain. Currently, the Pentagon is negotiating with multiple funds, such as \u00a0Carlyle\u00a0, \u00a0KKR\u00a0, \u00a0Blackstone\u00a0, and, of course, Cerberus, on infrastructure projects worth \u00a0\u20ac130 billion\u00a0. The aim is for these funds to finance the construction of military bases, \u00a0AI\u00a0 computing centers, or \u00a0rare earth\u00a0 mines that the military would lease or procure materials from.<\/p>\n

The ‘CRINK’ Economy: Ditching the Dollar and Bartering Peanuts for Cash<\/h2>\n

Iran swaps \u00a0oil\u00a0, \u00a0copper\u00a0, and \u00a0zinc\u00a0 for \u00a0cars\u00a0 and \u00a0cashews\u00a0 from China, receiving medical equipment and food from Pakistan in return for its oil. Sri Lanka settled a debt to Iran by paying in tea, and there’s an official barter agreement with Armenia. With Russia, Iran exchanges arms, industrial machinery, food, and oil. These practices violate the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran but are difficult to monitor. Consequently, they also provide \u00a0Vladimir Putin\u00a0 a blueprint on how to circumvent potential sanctions targeted at his oil companies, \u00a0Lukoil\u00a0 and \u00a0Rosneft\u00a0, starting from \u00a0November 21\u00a0. Thus the CRINK economy (standing for \u00a0China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea\u00a0) evolves, as named by the Washington \u00a0Atlantic Council\u00a0, representing a coalition poised against the U.S. and its Western allies.<\/p>\n

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China Begins to ‘Bake’ Its Own Wafers to Develop Its Industry<\/h2>\n

On Tuesday, the day after \u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0 and Japanese Prime Minister \u00a0Sanae Takaichi\u00a0 strengthened their alliance in Tokyo to contain China, the Chinese company \u00a0Eswin\u00a0, specializing in wafer or silicon substrate manufacturing, began trading on the \u00a0Star\u00a0 market (China’s equivalent to Nasdaq). This underscores China’s push towards \u00a0self-sufficiency\u00a0 in a market dominated by \u00a0Taiwan\u00a0, \u00a0Japan\u00a0, and \u00a0Germany\u00a0\u2014critical for \u00a0Beijing’s\u00a0 plan of developing its own AI that operates independently from the U.S. and its allies. Currently, China produces \u00a050%\u00a0 of the wafers it needs, while Eswin manufactures \u00a07%\u00a0 of the world’s total. Despite being in the red, the company’s shares surged by \u00a0198.7%\u00a0 on its first trading day, highlighting the \u00a0AI\u00a0 boom that is not just confined to the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u00a0internet\u00a0 contributes \u00a0\u20ac4.2 trillion\u00a0 annually to the GDP of the United States, yet a mere \u00a0\u20ac141,000\u00a0 (a staggering \u00a097%\u00a0 less) to the entire African continent, which has a population four times that of the U.S. Given this dramatic scale difference, it is unsurprising that \u00a0U.S. AI companies\u00a0 show little interest in the African market. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23832],"tags":[36932],"class_list":["post-181440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-economia-macroeconomia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}