Hello everyone,
After a few months away, I’m excited to reconnect and share fresh insights. Navigating the shifting tariff landscape and tackling complex InfraOps challenges alongside my clients at FGX and Brown & Co has taught me a lot. These experiences provided deep lessons in how multinational companies can better consume their technical hardware. InfraOps thrives on continuous refinement—I’m eager to pass along the valuable knowledge gained along this journey.
My goal remains the same: to give you the context and insights you need to stay ahead in InfraOps. You can expect more regular publishing: InfraOps digests like the couple we’d published last year (#1, #2), timeless perspectives on global IT strategy, and trend pieces that unpack developments (such as the past ones I’ve published on DeepSeek and shifting export controls).
In this edition of Justindustrious, you'll find a new InfraOps digest. It explores how sovereignty is more than a theoretical advantage, it is becoming a core infrastructure principle. Global supply chains are under pressure, and InfraOps offers a strategic response by giving buyers the tools to reduce dependency, assert control, and build resilient, sovereign systems. This week’s stories span from Beijing’s licensing limits to Europe’s AI push, and show some of the significant changes taking place in a fractured, fast-moving world.
China Limits Rare-Earth Licenses to Six Months. Beijing’s cap gives it a built-in escalation tool and injects fresh uncertainty into U.S. auto, defense, and clean-energy supply chains. The U.S. lacks sovereignty, which is important regarding infrastructure consumption. It also needs to develop its expertise in rare earth metals. Sovereignty matters, and it’s going to matter more. China is playing games with intellectual property transfer. Leverage in the ground
Arm CEO Warns U.S. Chip Curbs Could Backfire. Rene Haas says export controls on China “make the pie smaller,” risk fueling homegrown rivals, and ultimately hurt consumers and companies alike. Two takes: One, nobody can stop chips going anywhere. Two, if export controls slow the circulation of American chips to other countries, the other countries will buy Chinese chips. Export ban backlash
U.S. AI Race Needs Smart Trade, Not Broad Tariffs. A concise policy brief that dissects the newest round of Section 232 tariffs and shows how blanket duties on GPUs, NICs, and optical transceivers ripple through global supply chains. Perfect context for the tariff gymnastics we’ve been living, and a reminder that smart InfraOps design must insulate project timelines from trade-policy whiplash. Tariff trap vs. tech boost
CoreWeave Powers Google’s OpenAI Push. OpenAI once ran semi-exclusively on Azure—now it’s tapping Google Cloud via CoreWeave’s Nvidia GPUs. The bigger story is OpenAI isn’t going to be tied to any one hyperscaler, it’s going to build a cloud environment all over the world (e.g., Stargate UAE and potentially Europe, partnering with other hyperscalers, etc.). It has reached $10 billion in revenue, growing much faster than expected. It’s planning on releasing its open weights model this summer. Breaking the Azure habit
Europe’s Quest for AI Sovereignty Fuels Mistral’s Rise. European customers spooked by upheaval in the U.S. are flocking to Mistral’s homegrown models, so much so that the startup is building a 40 MW, Nvidia-powered AI data center south of Paris. If Europe’s staking its future on AI sovereignty, corporations should too—building homegrown tech they truly control. Sovereign AI on the Rise
Huawei Leans on Cluster Computing to Beat Export Bans. With its single chips a generation behind, Huawei is stitching together Ascend cores and “non-Moore’s-law” math to keep pace—and blunt Washington’s tech chokehold. You can still get any chip you want to China though! Clusters to the rescue
FAA Finally Ditches Windows 95 and Floppies. After a 2023 nationwide outage exposed its dated tech, the FAA has launched a four-year push to replace its Windows 95/floppy-based air-traffic control systems with secure, always-on infrastructure. Come on! What are we doing here?! Ground control upgrade
Thanks for reading, more to come soon!