> Isn't it more likely that countries without native frontier models will use open-weights models that will let them be 70% as productive of counties that do?
Possibly, but sometimes being marginally better lets you win all the games. It can be difficult to guess what matters and how.
Also, may depend where the compute is physically located, which may depend on the cost of energy.
Luckily, competing Chinese companies are selling cheaper and cheaper solar panels to anyone who's willing to take them.
That's exactly why TSMC keeps beating the pants off Intel. Marginally better looks miles ahead in computing a lot of the time.