The Poison Pills in U.S. Tech Deals With Small States

Pressed on whether the exclusivity concerns he raised earlier show up in real agreements, Warwick Powell points to Malaysia. Over the past two decades Malaysia has built both a microprocessor industry and a regional data centre industry, positioning itself as a data crossroads for North Asia, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. That footprint gives it a direct stake in how these deals are written, and Powell says the agreements it reached contain what he calls poison pills.

The mechanism is simple and, on his account, controversial in Malaysia: the Americans have to agree before other technologies can be included within the infrastructure. That is a veto in effect. Powell notes reports, which he says he cannot fully validate, of different ecosystems now operating inside the same buildings on separate floors, a vivid image of what lock-in looks like in practice.

The clip carries weight for an Armenian audience because the hosts connect it to Armenia’s own arrangements, including reported approvals for the use of NVIDIA GPUs and a government that has not been transparent about what it signed. Powell says he would not be surprised if similar poison pill clauses, tied to hardware and software lock-ins, sit inside those deals. His warning is direct: for a small country, committing to such agreements can mean denying yourself the very choices and options that are central to navigating a more fluid world. It ties the episode’s technology-sovereignty thread back to a practical, high-stakes question about who really controls a smaller state’s digital future.