Compute
Also known as: computing power · FLOPs
Compute is the raw processing power behind training and running models — measured roughly as GPU-hours or FLOPs (floating-point operations).
It’s the era’s binding resource:
- Training a frontier model consumes megawatts of power for weeks.
- Inference (serving answers) is where the ongoing cost and carbon live.
Whoever controls cheap, abundant compute controls the pace of AI.
Why you keep hearing it: "compute" is shorthand for the money, energy, and hardware that make everything else possible. It's the oil of the AI economy.