Musanjufu Benjamin Kavubu
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. One detail at the indoor event stood out: the tech billionaires seated at the center of power. For years, economists like Yanis Varoufakis have argued that capitalism has mutated into a new form, what he terms “technofeudalism.” Technology now anchors this transformation.
The inauguration scene symbolized this shift. Technology corporations and internet platforms dominate today’s markets, wielding monopolistic control over data, users, workers, and companies much like medieval lords once did over land and serfs. Just hours into his new presidency, Trump signed an executive order committing US$500 billion to artificial intelligence (AI), framing it as central to the future of the “free world.” Across the globe, on the very same day, China introduced DeepSeek, an open-source AI model that quickly disrupted global markets. Within a week, U.S. stocks suffered a massive sell-off, wiping billions from the world’s largest capital markets. The symbolism was impossible to miss. Washington’s bet on state-driven AI investments met Beijing’s cheaper, collaborative, and open-source alternative. This was not just about code, it was about competing visions of power, innovation, and influence.
The Biden administration had already recognized China’s rapid technological rise, imposing semiconductor export bans and 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Yet by 2023, China had overtaken Japan as the world’s top automobile exporter, thanks to its ability to produce affordable EVs at scale. Today, BYD and SAIC have overtaken Tesla in European markets, while Sino Trucks dominate African roads, replacing once-ubiquitous Japanese brands. This contest is not new. The Cold War produced a technological race between Washington and Moscow, from the USSR’s Sputnik launch in 1957 to America’s Apollo missions. Today’s equivalent is the new space race: SpaceX’s Starship versus China’s Long March 9. While SpaceX enjoys a fifteen-year advantage in rocket reusability and payload capacity, Beijing’s state-driven model seeks to close the gap by 2033. But space technology is not an isolated arena, it underpins telecommunications, security, and food systems. Satellites monitor weather patterns, guide agriculture, and safeguard national resilience. Space supremacy translates directly into geopolitical leverage.
Technology contestation extends deep into global supply chains. At its root are rare earth minerals, a group of 17 elements crucial for EV motors, wind turbines, hard drives, LEDs, medical imaging, and virtually every modern device. These minerals have become the new oil of the 21st century. They are central to the renewable energy transition and indispensable in defense technologies. Control over them is increasingly tied to conflict, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Ukraine, where President Trump has reportedly pressured Kyiv to release $500 billion worth of rare earths in exchange for military aid. China already refines 95 percent of the world’s rare earths, consolidating its grip on the future of green energy. Through initiatives like the Belt and Road, Beijing has locked in long-term access to these resources. Washington’s counterweight, the Lobito Corridor project in Africa, seeks to challenge this dominance, but the balance still tilts toward Beijing.
The contest over minerals also places Africa at the center of global attention. The continent is the source of many of the raw materials that fuel this race, from cobalt in the Congo to rare earth deposits scattered across East and Southern Africa. These resources move outward through global supply chains that increasingly depend on the East African coast and the Indian Ocean. Ports in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, and Lamu are becoming strategic gateways, linking African raw materials to Asian refineries and Western markets alike. Whoever secures influence over these supply routes will shape the future of global industry and geopolitics.
Telecommunications has been another flashpoint. China’s rollout of 5G technology was its own Sputnik moment. Firms like Huawei redefined global telecom infrastructure, forcing Washington to reassess its industrial strategy. Technology was no longer just a tool; it had become a strategic weapon.
The ripple effects of this contest are felt worldwide. A recent Atlantic Council report, “A Global South with Chinese Characteristics,” illustrates how Beijing leverages technology to export governance models and digital infrastructure across Africa and beyond. Meanwhile, CSIS’s “Vying for Influence in the Global South” maps how both Washington and Beijing use technology to shape governance, security, and development patterns in emerging markets. This is the essence of great power contestation in the 21st century. Unlike the Cold War, which was largely military and ideological, today’s confrontation is technological, infrastructural, and systemic. From satellites to smartphones, from roads in Kampala to rocket launches in Cape Canaveral, the battle lines are drawn.
For Africa, this rivalry is not a distant spectacle but a present reality with long-term consequences. The continent’s mineral wealth and its strategic location along vital supply chains mean that it cannot afford neutrality or passivity. Uganda, like many African countries, must carefully decide which technology partners to invite and work with. These choices will determine whether the young population has access to the knowledge, skills, and opportunities needed to compete technologically with the rest of the world. Human development at the individual level, from education to entrepreneurship, will depend on aligning with partners who bring more than extraction, partners who invest in innovation and skills transfer. This is why it makes economic sense for Africa to negotiate from a position of agency, not dependency. The future of globalization, sovereignty, and prosperity will hinge on whether Africa remains a supplier of raw materials or rises as a center of innovation and human development in the multipolar world taking shape today.
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