What does Putin care about AI? From his perspective, a war and making Russia bigger, and being the supreme commander, is more fun.

Remember, he's old, probably a bit tech incompetent (compared to most people here).

> [Russia] could have focused on building huge datacenters.

Maybe that's what you think is important (or even what is important), but Putin is a different creature

AI will, after all, become the second biggest weapon humanity has ever created.

That's only relevant to Putin's decision making processes if he shares that perspective.

"Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind," [...] "It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."

Vladimir Putin, 2017-09-01

https://www.twz.com/14141/putin-says-whoever-has-the-best-ar...

Oh, and:

"The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America and it'll be a big percentage of the chips made by this company (TSMC)"

Donald Trump, 2025-03-04

https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202503040017

In which regard?

Have you seen Russia's laptops?

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16827/russia-to-build-riscv-p...