The Verge Podcast Explores Hidden Supply Chain Costs of the AI Boom

In a Verge Decoder interview, Harvard Business School professor Willy Shih discusses his book on global supply chain economics with Nilay Patel. The conversation covers Trump-era tariffs, China's manufacturing role, AI infrastructure's consumption of computing resources, memory chip shortages, and the cross-border supply chains behind products like the iPhone. Shih argues trade barriers are unlikely to reverse globalization and that AI demand for memory and compute could strain the system.