AI has become the newest territory in the long history of human expansion. Empires once conquered land; now they conquer data. Every photo uploaded, every click, every GPS trace is raw material in a global contest for digital sovereignty. Karen Hao calls this the “new colonial world order”—where information replaces oil, and those who refine it rule.

For centuries, power followed the flow of resources. In the AI age, those resources are human behaviors rendered into data. The countries and corporations controlling data pipelines now exert influence without firing a shot. When U.S. and Chinese tech giants scrape the world’s public internet to train models, they’re not just improving products—they’re asserting informational dominance. The digital commons becomes a colonial frontier.

The consequences ripple through trade, policy, and even national identity. A nation’s data mirrors its citizens’ lives, culture, and vulnerabilities. When that data is externalized—owned, processed, and monetized abroad—digital autonomy erodes. Sovereignty becomes symbolic.

The Sovereignty Shift

Governments have begun to recognize the stakes.

- Europe built fortress-like regulation through GDPR and the AI Act, turning ethics into a trade weapon.

- China constructed data-localization laws to keep information within its borders, merging state control with industrial strategy.

- The United States remains conflicted—championing open innovation while fearing loss of strategic leverage.

The result is a global race to wall off national data assets, echoing the mercantilist policies of earlier empires. Each nation is redefining what it means to “own” intelligence.

Multinationals now operate across fractured jurisdictions. Security officers must track not only threat actors and IP theft but *data citizenship*. A breach in São Paulo can trigger penalties in Brussels. A vendor in Manila may handle training data governed by California privacy law. The security map has turned into a geopolitical labyrinth.

A forward-leaning corporate security team will start to treat data the way energy firms treat oil: mapping reserves, pipelines, and dependencies. The next generation of security dashboards will visualize jurisdictional exposure and compliance hotspots.

Optimists argue that data exchange drives innovation and mutual benefit. And to a point, that’s true. But when the exchange lacks reciprocity, it becomes extraction. Data colonialism is not about code—it’s about control.

The age of “free data” is ending. Security and governance leaders should:

1. Map data flows as if they were commodity supply routes.

2. Evaluate vendors for jurisdictional exposure and compliance risk.

3. Treat data localization as a resilience buffer, not a bureaucratic burden.

Empires of the past controlled shipping lanes. The new ones control information lanes. Understanding where your data sails may determine whether you remain sovereign—or colonized.