Editorial companion

What stands out

Elon Musk frames a practical constraint around the abstract idea of an AI arms race: physical electricity. He warns that who wins in advanced artificial intelligence could hinge on which country can supply more power to run massive models, data centers, and chips. Musk’s point matters because it shifts the debate from algorithms and talent to infrastructure, the transformers in the lab need transformers on the grid, and because he is pushing a conversation that links industrial policy, energy investment, and national competitiveness in technology.