Comment by RobotToaster
2 days ago
The bottleneck right now isn't making hardware more powerful, it's manufacturing it fast enough. Hardware right now is expensive because of scarcity, and those with a monopoly on it have no incentive to change that.
The Chinese would love to produce AI hardware much cheaper, but are blocked from doing so because US sanctions stop a Dutch company from selling them the machines capable of doing so. Coincidentally the companies with a monopoly happen to be in the US.
To be fair, the Dutch company is built on technology that was developed by the US Government, hence why there are restrictions.
[1]https://www.eetimes.com/u-s-gives-ok-to-asml-on-euv-effort/