MTS
China Has Zero Frontier AI on Domestic Chips | Ben Buchanan
Nov 12, 2026
About this episode
Former White House AI advisor Ben Buchanan details the geopolitical battle for AI dominance, how chip export controls are starving China of frontier compute, and what happens if the US faces superhuman AI by 2028. He explains the Biden administration’s behind-the-scenes strategy to keep the frontier lead and why computing power remains the ultimate bottleneck. Check out our sponsor Lovable: https://lovable.dev. Turn ideas into software people love. MTS is a live news and interview show covering technology, business, politics, and culture as it happens. Follow MTS: X | https://twitter.com/MTSlive YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@mtsituation Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/show/4HUNNmV1pjV7CW6Lphm1rM Apple | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mts/id1891088763 Substack | https://mtslive.substack.com/ Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@mts.now – Brought to you by: Mongo DB - Anyone can prototype an agent. Learn how to get them into production on September 30th in New York - register at https://www.mongodb.com/events/mongodb-local/nyc Chargebee - Billing and monetization infrastructure for the AI era. https://www.chargebee.com/ Lovable - Turn ideas into software people love with Lovable. Start today at https://lovable.dev/ ElevenLabs - AI that communicates at human level across every channel and modality. https://elevenlabs.io/mts Factory - A 24/7 system turning signals into production software. Visit https://factory.com/ Neon (by Databricks) - Scale your startup on Neon. The Postgres backend for apps and agents. Built by Databricks. https://neon.com/mts Today’s stream is sponsored by VCX , the public ticker for private tech. Head over to http://getvcx.com to learn more Kong - The AI connectivity platform. Connect APIs, LLMs, agents, and systems with serious security and governance. https://konghq.com Larridin - Finally prove what your AI investment is worth. Head to https://larridin.com/ today to start measuring your AI’s bottom line. Blitzy - Autonomous software development for enterprise codebases. Ship 5x faster. https://blitzy.com Arena - Measuring AI performance in the real world. https://arena.ai/ AdQuick - Make your brand a billboard. Out-of-home advertising as easy to scale as digital. https://adquick.com Clickhouse - The real-time database that keeps up with all of it. https://clickhouse.com/ – Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:44) Getting AGI Pilled Early (05:09) Inside The Export Control Debate (10:29) The Manhattan Project Scenario (13:05) Grading Trump’s AI Policy (18:34) Regulating AI Without Economic Damage (20:28) Preparing For Accelerated Timelines (22:05) Lessons From White House Tenure – Note: This podcast is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies and securities discussed; do your own research before acting on anything you hear.