Geopolitics
The AI Plantation: Is Southeast Asia Trading Sovereignty for Server Racks?
Southeast Asia is rapidly becoming a critical host for the global AI economy, with massive data center investments from foreign tech giants like NVIDIA and Ooredoo, yet the central, uncomfortable question remains whether the region will gain true strategic power or merely become a resource-rich, capability-poor digital colony for the West. This frantic rush for foreign investment without securing local capability transfer risks repeating a neo-colonial pattern, where the Global South provides the land, electricity, and markets while the West retains the intellectual sovereignty and profit, leaving Southeast Asia indispensable yet disempowered.
