The Export-Control Map
Export controls are the gravitational field the whole sector moves through. Washington discovered around 2022 that it did not need to build the world's compute to shape it — it only needed to sit at the chokepoint between chip designers and everyone else. Faraday's read: the controls work less like a wall and more like a customs house that reroutes traffic. They rarely stop capacity from existing; they change where it gets built, who finances it, and which flag flies over it. Every sovereign program in this course is, in part, a response to a line drawn on a map in Washington. Follow the controls and you can predict the deals.
Knowledge check
In what sense do US export controls function more like a chokepoint than a wall?
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The United States does not manufacture most advanced chips itself, but it controls the design firms, key software, and manufacturing equipment that the whole supply chain depends on. By regulating access at that chokepoint, it can steer who receives advanced compute and on what terms — rerouting where capacity gets built and who controls it, rather than simply preventing capacity from existing.