Valdai Club

On November 30 at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion, titled “Technological war between the USA and China: implications for the world and Russia”. It was timed to coincide with the release of the new Valdai Club report “US Technology Policy Amid Rivalry With China”.

Today the world is experiencing another round of the fourth industrial revolution and the emergence of a new technological structure. Progress in the field of high technology is obvious. Supercomputers have surpassed the historic milestone of 1 exaflop (1 quintillion operations per second). Modern microelectronics consist of chips with 3-nm (nanometre) processing technology. Excitement about the capabilities of artificial intelligence is giving way to fears for the future of humanity.

The world has reached a new milestone thanks to the global division of labour. Relations between China and the United States have played a significant role in technological development. However, today cooperation between the two powers is curtailed. Technonationalism is returning to the forefront. Although the American and Chinese positions are almost equal in the race for technological leadership, the United States is doing everything to remain at the top of the hi-tech industry.

In terms of its number of supercomputers, Russia currently ranks 12th in the Top-500 ranking. Russian companies and universities (SberBank, MTS, Yandex, Moscow State University) have seven such computers at their disposal. Russia hasn’t announced the launch of new supercomputers since November 2021. Last September, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to establish benefits for Russian component manufacturers, as well as support scientists and technology companies in using supercomputers to create and develop AI networks.

What is the optimal strategy for Russia in a technology race? What are the features of the United States’ modern technology policy? How vulnerable is it? What methods does the American leadership use in its technological confrontation with China? Is bipolarity possible in the high technology sector? Participants in the discussion tried to answer these and other questions.