Cognitive Sovereignty: The 3.8-Point Technology Gap That Suddenly Feels Smaller

Something strange showed up in the latest sovereignty rankings.

The United States remains #1 globally.
Total sovereignty score: 650.9 (Burke Sovereignty Index)
China: 649.1
Just 1.8 points behind.

But here’s what stands out even more.

Technological sovereignty:
– United States – 95.4
– China – 91.6
Only 3.8 points difference.

And yet, right in the middle of this, DeepSeek happened.
When its R1 model launched in 2025, markets focused on chips and computing power.
But Stanford researchers looked at something else entirely – the people behind it.

Here’s what they found:
– 98% of DeepSeek researchers had Chinese institutional ties
– More than half never left China
– Many who trained in the U.S. eventually returned home

Even more unexpected:
These weren’t inexperienced engineers.

Average output per researcher:
– 61 scientific publications
– Over 1,000 citations

Meanwhile, the U.S. still holds:
– 95.4 technological sovereignty score – among the highest globally
– 95.4 cognitive sovereignty score

If technological sovereignty remains dominant…
why is talent sovereignty becoming more fluid?

Stanford’s conclusion sounded more like a warning:
Human capital – not hardware – may now define geopolitical power.

#BurkeSovereigntyIndex #AI #DeepSeek #technology #BurkeIndex #Sovereignty

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