AI, Chips, and Global Power: Joshua Charles on Geopolitics and Energy Resilience
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): A Further Inquiry
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/11/01
Joshua Charles is the CEO and Founder of Frontier Dominion, a strategist and policy entrepreneur specializing in great power competition, U.S. foreign policy, energy resilience, cybersecurity, and frontier markets in Africa and the Middle East. With a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University, he brings expertise in econometrics, national security, and emerging technologies. At Frontier Dominion, Charles provides institutional investors and policymakers with forward-looking intelligence on critical minerals, market entry strategies, and AI-driven innovation. His insights on geopolitics, defense, and economic resilience are regularly featured in policy commentary and global media.
In this interview with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Charles examines how AI and semiconductor dynamics are transforming global power structures. Charles highlights the strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China while noting the potential for nations like Japan, Vietnam, and African countries to play pivotal roles. He emphasizes safeguarding chip production through Indo-Pacific security, domestic investment, and Africa’s leverage in rare earth alternatives. Charles also identifies rising AI threats such as cyberattacks and deep fakes, while stressing energy resilience through infrastructure, regulation, and partnerships. He concludes that AI-chip diplomacy will eventually stabilize global power, though not yet.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How do you see AI development reshaping great power competition?
Joshua Charles: I envisage AI development reshaping great power competition by materially enhancing the power and influence of countries that are able to gain either a competitive advantage or absolute advantage in AI tools and infrastructure. China and the United States are two powers to monitor, though countries like Japan and Vietnam, for instance, may leapfrog in global power dynamics relative to other nations should their diplomatic strategies in AI and geopolitics serve them well.
Jacobsen: What strategies should the U.S. adopt to safeguard chip production?
Charles: The U.S. should increase its military resources in the Indo-Pacific region to protect the existing supply chain in Taiwan, while it bolsters its chip production domestically. The U.S. government may acquire stakes in different chip producers to inject more capital into existing suppliers that may have financial deficits to produce chips domestically as quickly as they likely desire.
Jacobsen: How can Africa leverage resources to become a decisive player in semiconductor supply chains?
Charles: Africa can leverage its resources to become a decisive player in semiconductor supply chains by scaling assembly, packaging & test hubs for AI accelerator packaging. Furthermore, serving as a location point for the refinement of gallium and germanium alternatives would shift the global reliance on China, which has recently added regulation to protecting its rare earth elements.
Jacobsen: What emerging threats should governments and private actors be prepared for with AI?
Charles: Governments and private actors should be prepared to face emerging threats such as increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks and information manipulation such as deep fakes.
Jacobsen: How can the U.S. and its partners ensure energy resilience?
Charles: The U.S. and its partners can ensure energy resilience by addressing three core issues stalling sufficient energy production: (1) mobilizing financial resources to construct transmission lines expeditiously, (2) cautiously removing regulatory red tape for environmentally friendly projects, and (3) form public-private partnerships to create the ecosystem required to finance large scale energy projects.
Jacobsen: How might the Middle East’s growing role in energy and digital infrastructure intersect with the U.S.-China rivalry?
Charles: I postulate that the Middle East will continue to invest in the Global South, with a strong focus on African countries in Southern Africa such as Zambia, Botswana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will likely lead these investments from the Middle East.
Jacobsen: What signals or market indicators can anticipate geopolitical shifts in the AI-chip race?
Charles: I would argue that it is the physical vulnerability of supply chains, ranging from fabs in East Asia to corridor transportation and logistics, that can anticipate geopolitical shifts in the AI-chip race.
Jacobsen: Do you foresee AI and chip diplomacy stabilizing global power structures?
Charles: In the future, certainly. However, in the interim, no. I believe global power structures are highly adaptative to whoever dominates across AI and chip diplomacy.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Joshua.
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