Ah, Sunday evening—the perfect time to sip your coffee, not gulp it. Stare at the sunset, though Nairobi is raining cats, dogs and other animals, and ponder the future of humanity’s inevitable takeover by Stargate. The US is kicking things up a notch in the global AI race with a Texas-sized plan to spend $100–500 billion (because who needs exact budgets, right?) on data centers powered by renewable energy. If you’re in construction or tech, congratulations—you might just land one of the 100,000 jobs this initiative will create. The new government is all up about qualified H1B visas. Time to dust off your hard hat or that LinkedIn profile and get ready for the AI race.
In the red, white, and blue corner, we have the US, armed with OpenAI, Oracle and a dream. In the red corner, it’s China, already flexing its AI muscles. The stakes? Global tech dominance. The US is assembling a cast of characters that might include Google and Microsoft (unless they decide to go rogue and do their own thing). Oracle’s stock is up already by 6%—because what’s an AI race without a Wall Street subplot? Oh, and SoftBank’s here too, because it wouldn’t be a tech story without some "big money, big debt" energy. They had shy of 25B in reserves at the close of 2024, so that 100-500B is either new injections or loans, either way they believe in the solution enough to take a high risk.
Companies like Meta and Salesforce are already making plans to not higher middle-to-lower-level developers but instead start using AI. STOP, don’t panic! Think of it as a chance to “pivot” (like your favorite startups do when they fail). Sure, AI is pricey now, but once it’s cheaper, we’ll all be living in a futuristic utopia—or at least working for it. Imagine, your computer writing the code as you play your favorite one-person shooter, actual work time s down to 1 or 2 hours a day, sure, less work, less money, you now have 6 hours to do something else.
What’s not to love about a world where hospitals run on algorithms, manufacturing is automated, and 3D printers spit out jet engine parts like they’re making pancakes? Of course, there’s also the small matter of figuring out what humans will actually do. But don’t worry—new job categories are on the way! (Just don’t ask what they are yet. That’s future-you’s problem.) But those of us in the skills market will either start doing multiple things, the doctor who dabbles as an engineer, poet and karaoke singer.
If AI were a video game, the next level would be a battle over chips and energy. Everyone’s scrambling to develop faster chips to compute AI, while energy companies eyeing nuclear power like it’s the cool kid at school. It’s all part of the high-stakes plan to make sure AI has the juice to run… and maybe not overthrow us just yet.
Here’s the kicker: how do you train kids for jobs that don’t even exist? Do we just tell them to “dream big” and hope for the best? Maybe. One thing’s clear: the future workforce needs to adapt faster than your grandma switching from landlines to TikTok. Education and training programs are racing to keep up, ensuring people are ready for careers that sound like sci-fi movie titles. Researchers believe that by 2040, we should be in the age of Ai, just as the last bitcoin is mined. Less than 15 years away, so this is going to happen in our life times.
The race to AI dominance is about more than just technology—it’s about people, ethics, and making sure the robots don’t steal our jobs and our dignity. As we build this brave new world, let’s remember: AI is a tool, not a tyrant. (Unless we screw up, in which case, Skynet says "resistance is futile", because that is like the borg's Gran papie.)
So, as you settle into your evening, just know that somewhere in Texas, someone is planning the future of humanity. And it looks like it’s going to need a lot of concrete, some nuclear power, and maybe a few jokes to keep things light. And as much as they keep preaching doom and gloom, they are in an awful hurry to build Skynet.
Have a Great Start to your week.
Fabian Owuor
