The digital economy includes firms and individuals that sell digital services or products, operate physical infrastructure foundational to the digital economy, or manufacture hardware or software that supports digital infrastructure. It was valued at $4.9 trillion in 2024, and it supported 28.4 million jobs.

New U.S. foreign direct investment rose nearly 50 percent in 2025 after three years of decline. Policymakers should build on this momentum by prioritizing policies that attract more greenfield investment and strengthen American competitiveness.

As employers increasingly seek workers who can apply AI alongside domain expertise, universities should integrate AI across disciplines—not just standalone AI or computer science programs—to prepare graduates for the modern workforce.

Labor unions have claimed that General Motors laid off more than 1,000 workers at its Factory Zero EV facility because it installed 50 AI-integrated manufacturing robots, but the layoffs were far more likely driven by weaker-than-expected EV demand and shifting production priorities. Policymakers should focus on helping workers adapt to automation through retraining rather than resisting productivity-enhancing technologies.

Whether Washington sustains a policy response equal to the challenge China poses or takes a timeout while Xi runs up the score remains an open question.

The UK is considering new requirements for nudity-scanning software on children's devices that would further expand its controversial online safety regime. While intended to protect children, the proposal would undermine privacy, anonymity, and free speech, and the UK should instead pursue more targeted, privacy-preserving measures.

If the China challenge is real, the West needs to get serious about its techno-industrial policy. This means a more active state in tech, trade, and industry, a prospect certain to rile free-market advocates who imagine that “even if the US is a hollowed-out economy, at least we will be free.”

Brazil has become a hotbed for Chinese investment, with more than $6 billion in incoming Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2025, accounting for over 10 percent of China’s total FDI that year.

Korean and industry reports suggest China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is moving faster in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips than many in Seoul expected. Korea still leads. But the margin is narrowing, and that should change how Seoul thinks about its AI goals.

Too many academics now trade objectivity for narrative, ignoring inconvenient facts that get in the way of the story they want to tell.