A China-attributed actor dubbed Salt Typhoon has been linked by an international coalition of agencies to large-scale intrusions—including telecoms data theft—spanning more than 80 countries. This brief gives decision-makers the essentials, separates it from similarly named “Typhoon” groups, and lays out a pragmatic response plan.

Agentic AI marks a step-change in business design. No longer just tools, AI systems are emerging as “agents” that learn, negotiate, and act autonomously. Boards must rethink strategy, risk, and governance before this technology reshapes entire industries.

Geopolitical mega-forces are redrawing the investment map—AI, energy, and sovereignty now drive capital flows

Agentic AI will test the limits of governance—where commercial opportunity collides with state power

Introduction: From Utility to Critical Asset For years, data centres were discussed in terms of real estate, energy efficiency, or cloud competition. That framing is now obsolete. In Q4 2025, governments are treating data centres as strategic infrastructure , akin to oil fields or power grids. 1. OpenAI’s Provocative Comparison OpenAI’s recent warning—that data centres must be guarded like oil rigs —has been echoed by policymakers. Why? Compute is the fuel for AI arms races.

Semiconductors are the new oil—the critical asset where supply chain weakness translates into national vulnerability.

The tariff war is not only reshaping trade - it’s redefining where digital transformation capital is deployed.

In a fragmented world, AI agents and synthetic data are no longer optional tools—they are strategic assets for survival.

The “last miles” are expensive: scattered populations, hard access, fragile backhaul, and slow permitting. A stratospheric cell site changes the math—one platform can blanket thousands of square kilometres, stand up service fast, and stay online when floods or fires knock out ground sites. Here’s a board-level playbook to expand rural LTE/5G without runaway capex.

NTN is no longer an add-on. To get real value from a stratospheric platform, operators must treat HAPS as a native access layer in the mobile core—steered by policy, secured by design, and orchestrated alongside terrestrial cells and satellites. This post shows how to align HAPS with 5G/6G roadmaps—so coverage, capacity, and continuity are policy decisions, not geography.