🎧 New Stop the World episode: cloud, AI & sovereignty with Microsoft’s Mike Yeh

Why data, compute and digital sovereignty now shape national power — a conversation worth flagging for Digest readers.

Alongside our daily news roundups and monthly expert commentaries, we’re introducing occasional updates flagging episodes of Stop the World — ASPI’s podcast on global politics, security and technology. When a conversation cuts directly across the cyber and tech themes we cover in the Digest, we’ll share it here as a kind of “audio edition” of the issues you’re already following.

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Digitising the world: Microsoft’s Mike Yeh on cloud computing, AI and sovereignty

One of the hottest topics in the world is data centres. Demand for the computing power needed to drive modern economies and societies, especially with artificial intelligence, is climbing steeply. Cloud computing services, often provided by big tech firms known as hyperscalers, supply a lot of this power.

In the latest episode of ASPI’s podcast Stop the World, ASPI’s David Wroe speaks to Microsoft’s regional vice president for corporate external and legal affairs in Asia, Mike Yeh, about the strategic importance of cloud computing and of turning critical data into national assets. Increasingly, the ability to access and process data effectively is a significant strategic commodity that will help determine the strength of nations.

Mike discusses the meaning of digital “sovereignty” and the use of spreading risk so that a country doesn’t find itself cut off from computing power or from its own data. He also talks about the energy demands of computing, the value of digitising and structuring data, the security considerations of cloud computing, Ukraine’s experience with data, and the relationship between strategic competition and rival cloud services in the Indo-Pacific region.

The conversation also explores the cybersecurity challenges of cooperation between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and levels of social trust in AI in the Indo-Pacific.

Listen on Apple , Spotify , Amazon Music , RSS or wherever you get your podcasts — or watch on YouTube .

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This is a special TSD Summit Sessions episode, which covers some of the topics that will be discussed at ASPI’s major tech and security summit, the Sydney Dialogue, on 4–5 December in Sydney. For more information on the Dialogue, visit https://tsd.aspi.org.au/