The AI industry has entered a capital arms race where access to sovereign-scale funding — think $7 billion private rounds and $29 billion IPOs — has become the primary competitive moat, creating a two-tier market of those who can write blank checks and those who cannot.

Evidence For

• DeepSeek raised $7 billion in China's largest-ever AI fundraising, breaking its "no fundraising" principle. The round values it at nearly 400 billion yuan, with proceeds for...