Russia Pivots to Chinese Computer Chips

Since U.S. sanctions make it difficult for Russia to buy Intel or AMD computer processors, Russia will soon be buying Chinese Loongson processors based on the LoongArch architecture. The new chips will be used with Russia's BaseALT operating system which is based on the Sisyphus Linux development platform and will start shipping in early 2024. 

The volume of sales in Russia and Chinese government subsidies will drive down the prices of Loongson processors so that AMD and Intel will rapidly lose market share in most countries. The decline in sales will require that non-Chinese manufacturers increases prices, which will further diminish their market. 

One can assume that the Chinese processors and Russian operating system will have backdoors that will be used to spy on users to identify dissidents, technology worth stealing and people to blackmail. This will of course greatly strengthen China so it will ensure that its computers dominate as many markets as possible. However, savvy computer users may be able to replace their compromised operating system with one that is secure and which might detect the backdoor in the hardware. 

The Chinese processors don't have to be the most powerful. Very few people actually need all the processing power that their computer has. In the consumer market it is mostly only gamers that demand high-end processors. In fact, lower end processors can be faster than the more expensive and powerful processors when it comes to web browsing and word processing. 

Outside the U.S., China already dominates the market in networking equipment and can easily siphon off data for espionage purposes. By also controlling the processor market it will be able to rule the world, but it will need a massively powerful AI to manage it, and that is also just around the corner.