Machine Intelligence Infrastructure

About this map

Every time you ask an AI chatbot a question, you set in motion a chain of dependencies that spans 13 countries, more than 60 companies, and stretches from 380-million-year-old quartz deposits to fiber optic cables on the ocean floor.

This interactive map traces the complete physical supply chain behind AI — from mines, farms, and chemical plants, through chip factories and data centers, all the way to the AI services we use every day. Each dot is a critical stage. Each arc is a dependency. Click any node to learn its story.

How to read this map

• Layers organize the supply chain from bottom (energy, raw materials) to top (AI services)
• Bottlenecks (pulsing red rings) mark stages where a single company or region controls most of the global supply
• Trace chains follow a single material from origin to your screen — try "Sugar → GPUs" to see how sugarcane becomes part of an AI chip
• Dotted terms in descriptions have explanations — hover over them

References

• Chris Miller, Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, Scribner, 2022
• International Energy Agency, Energy and AI, IEA, 2025
• OECD, Competition in the AI Infrastructure Stack, OECD, 2025
• OECD, Mapping the Semiconductor Value Chain, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers, 2024
• International Energy Agency, Global Critical Minerals Outlook, IEA, 2024
• Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), various reports and data, semiconductors.org

Acknowledgement

Inspired by and building upon work at aisupplychain.vercel.app.