For the past three years, the artificial intelligence race has largely been defined by chatbots. OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Google expanded Gemini. Meta developed Llama, while Microsoft embedded AI across Windows and Office. But behind the competition to build smarter models, another battle is accelerating, one that could ultimately prove more important than the software itself.
The world's largest technology companies are now competing for computing power, investing hundreds of billions of pounds in AI data centres, specialised chips and electricity infrastructure needed to train and run increasingly powerful AI systems. Recent developments suggest computing capacity, often referred to as 'compute', has become one of the industry's most valuable resources.
