Among the world’s countries, several nations stand out when it comes to tech leadership. The US, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Israel and the UK are among the key players in the tech world. The innovations of tomorrow will fuel economic growth and military power. For this reason, being a leader in technology is essential to a nation’s economic future and national security.
When it comes to digital technology, the US has long been considered the world leader because of the dominance of companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook. But they are the present and past. The future may be in China, which is already giving America a run for its money.
Journalist Rebecca A. Fannin has documented a major boom in China’s tech sector that has allowed the nation to actually surpass the US in digital fields such as 5G technology, e-commerce and electric cars.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the race is typically understood as a two way battle between the US and China with the EU in third place. However, Europe is home to CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) which operates the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. It gives Europe an advantage when it comes to understanding the sub-atomic elements in the universe. CERN is also the birthplace of the world wide web.
The out come of the race for 21st century tech dominance is unclear. Which country will win will depend on which tech sectors will matter the most.