What DeepSeek, Russian Sanctions and Guitar Amplifiers Teach Us About Global Competition
In 1962, high import taxes made it impossible for Jim Marshall, a music-store owner in London, to meet demand for popular American-made Fender amplifiers, and he set out to create his own. The resulting Marshall amplifiers came out with a different sound but were the foundation for bands such as The Who and Led Zeppelin, which spread British hard rock all over the world. Similar phenomena are now playing out, including China’s ability to catch up with the U.S. in the artificial-intelligence race despite Biden-era policies aimed at capping what it can buy from U.S. semiconductor firms.