Measuring AI Infrastructural Power: The Foundational AI Infrastructure Database and the AI Infrastructure Control Index

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

No 26-09, IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: Artificial intelligence is increasingly analysed as a general-purpose technology, a source of productivity growth, and an object of geopolitical competition. Much less is known about the cross-country distribution of control over the infrastructures on which frontier AI depends. This paper introduces the Foundational AI Infrastructure Database (FAID), a cross-country data architecture that maps six complementary layers of the AI production stack: advanced logic fabrication; semiconductor manufacturing equipment and electronic design automation; frontier compute; cloud infrastructure; foundation models; and frontier high-performance computing. We use FAID to construct the AI Infrastructure Control Index (AICI), a composite measure of documented national control over these foundational assets. The index is deliberately structural rather than predictive: it measures position in the infrastructure stack, not AI adoption, innovation performance, digital readiness, or policy effort. We document three facts. First, control over foundational AI infrastructure is highly concentrated, substantially more so than conventional measures of international production and trade. Second, the geography of infrastructural control differs sharply from the geography implied by merchandise exports and aggregate economic size: several economies occupy positions in the AI stack that are disproportionate to their conventional market weight, while others with large markets remain weakly positioned at critical technological nodes. Third, control is functionally differentiated across layers, so aggregate rankings conceal distinct forms of dependence and leverage. An exploratory comparison with economy-wide industrial-policy support finds little contemporaneous cross-country association, consistent with the view that infrastructural position reflects cumulative capabilities and technology-specific bottlenecks rather than current policy intensity alone. FAID and AICI provide a measurement framework for research on structural power, technological sovereignty, industrial policy, geoeconomic dependence, and development in an increasingly infrastructure-centred world economy.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; infrastructural power; structural power; semiconductors; compute; cloud; industrial policy; geoeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F50 F52 L52 O25 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages.
Date: 2026-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tid
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