🇺🇸 US frontier labs & hyperscalers AI Spend
• Amazon AWS (AI infra): ≈ $86 B/yr → $7.2 B/mo
• Microsoft Azure AI: ≈ $80 B/yr → $6.7 B/mo
• Google (Gemini, infra): ≈ $75 B/yr → $6.3 B/mo
• Meta (LLaMA, infra): ≈ $60–72 B/yr → $5–6 B/mo
• OpenAI direct: ≈ $28 B/yr → $2.3 B/mo
• xAI: ≈ $13 B/yr → $1.0 B/mo
• Anthropic: ≈ $5 B/yr → $0.4 B/mo
US total ≈ $29 B per month
🇨🇳 Chinese frontier labs
Moonshot AI ≈ $90 M/mo
DeepSeek ≈ $60 M/mo
Alibaba ≈ $400 M/mo
ByteDance ≈ $300 M/mo
Baidu ≈ $200 M/mo
China total ≈ $1 B/mo
Ratio: US spend > 28× Chinese spend per month, driven by hyperscaler build-outs & frontier-model training.
CAST top 10 ☕👇
1️⃣ 🌀 Why do some typhoons suddenly U-turn?
Imagine a hurricane that looks like it’s heading to Taiwan, then hard-left toward Japan overnight.
Cracking the physics = earlier warnings + fewer surprise evacuations.
2️⃣ 🧮 How many different “shapes of space” exist?
Mathematicians classify weird higher-dimensional blobs (manifolds).
Better map = better GPS, safer spacecraft paths, maybe new physics.
3️⃣ ⚛️ Where does mass come from?
We kind of know the Higgs boson gives mass, but details are fuzzy.
China’s CEPC collider (think a 100 km underground race-track for electrons) will zoom in like a 50-year-long microscope.
4️⃣ 🧪 Can we swap rare metals with cheap ones in chemistry?
Today’s catalysts use pricey platinum, palladium, etc.
Using antimony or bismuth instead could cut drug costs & pollution at the same time.
5️⃣ 🌱 How do forests, rivers & cities “talk” to each other?
Build a giant “weather map” for ecosystems so we can spot collapse before it happens.
6️⃣ 🌡️ Why do some materials suddenly conduct with zero loss at –140 °C?
Figure this out and power lines lose no energy, MRI magnets need no helium, trains levitate on cheap tracks.
7️⃣ 🌌 What is 95 % of the universe made of?
Stars & atoms are only 5 %. The rest is “dark stuff” we can’t see.
Better detectors = cosmic Wi-Fi from the Big Bang or signs of extra dimensions.
8️⃣ 🧠 Can we make chips that learn like brains?
Instead of crunching 0s & 1s, neuromorphic chips use “spikes,” like neurons.
Result: AI that runs on AA batteries instead of server farms.
9️⃣ 🦠 How does life survive boiling acid or Antarctic ice?
Copy those tricks → new antibiotics, crops that grow on Mars, or enzymes that eat plastic.
🔟 🔗 Can entangled particles stay spooky at room size?
If yes: unhackable city-wide quantum internet + sensors that detect earthquakes by feeling gravity ripples.
