The New Silk Roads: Chips, Data, Energy, and Power

Goods, money, people, religion, disease, technology, and power have always moved through routes. The places that mattered most were often the places sitting along those routes or controlling access to what the world needed at the time. This is one of the major themes I took from The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. A review from the London School of Economics describes the book as an attempt to push back against the idea that globalization is only a story of Western expansion, instead emphasizing the long history of intellectual, physical, and commercial exchange across Eurasia.[1]

That idea feels extremely relevant today because the modern economy is being reorganized around new routes. The original Silk Roads were shaped by the resources and demands of their time. Silk, spices, horses, metals, religion, knowledge, and later energy helped decide which cities, regions, and cultures became dominant and wealthy. Power followed the routes in the past, follows them in the present, and will continue to follow them in the future. The center of the world is not fixed. It moves depending on what people need, where they need it, who controls access to it, and which routes connect supply with demand.

It is easy to think of economic fundamentals in the traditional sense: land, labor, oil, manufacturing, shipping routes, industrial output, and access to capital. Those things still matter, and in some cases people probably underestimate how much they matter. But the definition of fundamentals has expanded. The modern economy is increasingly being shaped by data, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, software, payment rails, cloud infrastructure, rare earth minerals, alternative energy, cybersecurity, and financial technology.

The new Silk Roads are not only roads, ports, canals, and shipping lanes. They are also chip supply chains, undersea cables, data centers, cloud networks, payment systems, AI models, app ecosystems, energy grids, and digital identity systems. Some of these are physical. Some are digital. Most are both. The World Bank describes data centers as a vital part of digital infrastructure, providing remote storage, processing, and distribution of data. It also describes cloud “on-ramps” as private connections between data centers and cloud providers that can improve security, reliability, speed, and cost.[2]

That is what makes the current moment so interesting when compared with the past. The old routes have not gone away. Goods still need to move. Energy still needs to move. Food, minerals, machines, and people still depend on physical infrastructure. But more of the world’s value now also moves through routes we cannot easily see and that require a high level of technical understanding to master: data flows, APIs, financial networks, software platforms, blockchain rails, and digital marketplaces. At the same time, AI has the potential to make parts of these systems more understandable and accessible to people who previously would not have had the technical ability to work with them.

In the past, a powerful position might have meant controlling a port city, a mountain pass, a trade corridor, or access to gold. Today, power can also mean controlling chip production, cloud infrastructure, payment networks, operating systems, the world reserve currency, AI models, transaction data, or a software layer that other businesses depend on. This does not mean the economy has moved beyond fundamentals. It means the definition of fundamentals has expanded.

A semiconductor supply chain is a fundamental. A data center is a fundamental. A payments network is a fundamental. An energy grid is a fundamental. A cloud platform is a fundamental. A reliable identity or compliance system is a fundamental. These are the routes and chokepoints that modern business depends on, even if they are less visible than ships and roads.

This is why microchips matter so much. They are not just parts inside computers. They are the foundation of AI, defense systems, cloud computing, phones, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing. The Center for Strategic and International Studies has argued that all major U.S. defense systems rely on semiconductors, while also noting that U.S.-based chip manufacturing has fallen to around 10% of global production and that the U.S. has less than 5% share in outsourced assembly, testing, and packaging.[3] That is not just a technology issue. It is an economic, industrial, and geopolitical issue.

This is also why data matters. It is not just information. It is a raw material for automation, optimization, AI, personalization, and decision-making. The OECD has described data and data analytics as sources of competitive advantage and knowledge-based capital, with the potential to stimulate innovation and productivity growth across sectors including logistics, transport, health care, utilities, online advertising, and public administration.[4]

Energy and critical minerals fit the same pattern. The International Energy Agency has argued that minerals are essential to fast-growing clean energy technologies, from wind turbines and electricity networks to electric vehicles. In climate-driven scenarios, mineral demand for EVs and battery storage grows at least thirty times by 2040, with lithium demand growing more than forty times.[5] That makes minerals feel a lot less like a niche commodity issue and a lot more like one of the major route-control questions of the next economy.

Payment infrastructure matters for the same reason. It is not just a back-office function. It is how value moves through the global economy. The Bank for International Settlements’ Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures says payment, clearing, and settlement systems support financial stability and the wider economy.[6] Its work with the G20 on cross-border payments also notes that faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive cross-border payment services would benefit citizens and economies by supporting trade, growth, development, and financial inclusion.[7]

That is the parallel I see between The Silk Roads and the modern economy. In every era, the world reorganizes around what is scarce, valuable, and necessary. Routes form around those things. Then power starts to collect around the people, companies, and countries that can control, protect, finance, or improve those routes. But now the “route” may be a software license, a chip supply chain, a cloud platform, a payment network, or an AI model.

That raises the practical question: how do people, companies, and countries adapt when the routes of value start to change?

The answer is not to abandon the old fundamentals. Land, labor, energy, manufacturing, logistics, and capital still matter. The answer is to understand that new fundamentals are being layered on top of them. Data needs energy. AI needs chips. Chips need minerals. Digital payments need compliance and trust. Cloud platforms need physical data centers. The digital world still rests on physical foundations, but more of the value comes from understanding how those layers connect.

People adapt by learning the systems that increasingly shape work and opportunity: AI tools, data, software, payments, energy, chips, supply chains, and digital platforms. That does not mean everyone needs to become an engineer, coder, or economist. But it does mean people who understand these systems at a practical business level will have more options than those who treat them as distant technical subjects.

Companies adapt by identifying which new routes their business depends on and which ones could create leverage. A company today has to understand more than its product or service. It has to understand its supply chain, data flows, payment infrastructure, software dependencies, energy exposure, cybersecurity risk, and access to talent. The advantage goes to companies that can see where value is moving and build around it early, rather than waiting until a disruption makes the dependency obvious.

Countries adapt by investing in the infrastructure the next economy runs on: energy systems, semiconductor capacity, data centers, ports, broadband, education, research, payment systems, and regulatory frameworks that allow new industries to grow. The countries that control or strengthen these routes gain influence. The countries that depend entirely on others for them become more vulnerable.

That is the real adaptation challenge. It is not just learning one new technology or chasing one trend. It is learning how the routes fit together.

The modern Silk Roads are also fragile. A disruption in chip production can affect car companies, defense contractors, phone makers, and AI labs. A cyberattack can stop hospitals, logistics networks, or financial systems. A payment restriction or sanction can cut a company or country off from global commerce. An energy shortage can reshape entire industries. A cloud outage can remind everyone how dependent they are on systems they barely think about.

That may be the biggest lesson in all of this: infrastructure is quiet until it is not. Most people do not think about the systems underneath the economy when everything is working. They only notice them when goods are delayed, payments fail, energy prices spike, chips are unavailable, software goes down, or access is restricted. But those systems are always shaping what is possible and where value is created.

That is what The Silk Roads made me think about. The center of the world is never permanent. It moves with trade, resources, technology, and infrastructure. The same thing is happening now. The countries and companies that understand the new routes will have an advantage. The ones that assume the old map still explains everything will be slower to adapt and maybe fail to survive.

Today’s Silk Roads may look like chips, data, AI, energy, software, payments, and networks rather than literal roads and sailing routes. The form has changed, but the pattern is familiar: follow what the world needs, follow how it moves, and you will usually find where power, money, and growth are going next.

Sources

[1] London School of Economics Review of Books. “Book Review: The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan.” 2016.

[2] World Bank. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives — “Connecting the World.”

[3] Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Semiconductors and National Defense: What Are the Stakes?” 2022.

[4] OECD. Exploring Data-Driven Innovation as a New Source of Growth. 2015.

[5] International Energy Agency. The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions. 2021.

[6] Bank for International Settlements, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. “CPMI Overview.”

[7] Bank for International Settlements, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. Enhancing Cross-Border Payments: Building Blocks of a Global Roadmap. 2020.