Supernodes were everywhere at last month’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. Assemblies of dozens or hundreds of computer chips and associated hardware, supernodes are China’s way around the United States’ ban on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Using greater quantities of domestic chips to deliver world-class computing power, they allow China to dodge the chokehold the US is trying to place on its AI aspirations. At this year’s WAIC,...