*The Core Theme:* Geopolitics of Next-Gen AI Hardware. *The ‘Big’ Argument:* While the global AI race has traditionally been measured by access to advanced silicon nodes and NVIDIA’s digital GPUs, a paradigm shift is emerging through photonic or light-based computing. China is leveraging this “photonic shortcut” to sidestep US-led sanctions on advanced fabrication by focusing on optical inference, which claims to outperform traditional GPUs in specific tasks like image generation and vision processing by 100 times. This suggests a transition from a “single stack” AI world dominated by one company to a diversified hardware ecosystem where specialised compute—rather than general-purpose power plants—becomes the standard for efficiency and cost-effectiveness at scale. *Evidence Locker:* • *Data Points:* Light-based chips can outperform NVIDIA A100s by 100x on specific tasks; US sanctions are easing to allow NVIDIA H200 chips back into China under specific licences; the system ‘Light Gen’ was developed by teams from Tsinghua and Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities. • *Quote:* “The race is shifting from who has the fastest GPU to who can deliver the cheapest cleanest compute at scale whether it runs on electrons photons or something else entirely.” *Relevance Score:* *10/10.* This matters now because it signals that geopolitical sanctions on silicon may not permanently stifle AI development if optical alternatives mature.