And China Is Way Ahead
One of the most powerful discussions from Market Summit wasn’t actually about software, chips or even valuations. It was about power — literal electricity generation. Because AI doesn’t just run on algorithms; it runs on energy.
The comparison was stark. China’s electricity production is sitting around 10,000 terawatt hours annually. The United States is closer to 4,300. To put that into perspective, a terawatt hour is one trillion watts. These are enormous numbers. But the takeaway isn’t the scale — it’s the strategic positioning.
China has aggressively expanded its energy capacity across coal, nuclear, hydro and renewables. It’s not overly concerned with how the power is produced — the priority is simply having enough of it. That’s because AI infrastructure, data centres, robotics and advanced manufacturing are extraordinarily power-hungry. If AI is the industrial revolution of this era, energy generation is the oil well.
For Australia, it’s a sobering comparison. We’re one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, yet we still struggle with coherent long-term energy planning. When electricity prices spike 19% locally, it highlights just how critical policy and infrastructure decisions are.
The AI conversation often gets framed as “who has the best model?” But the deeper question might be “who has the power to run it?” And right now, that advantage appears unevenly distributed.
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