U.S. to Press Allies to Choose Between Washington and Beijing AI Coalitions

The U.S. is reportedly preparing to tell dozens of countries they must choose sides in the artificial intelligence race with China, warning they will be excluded from a U.S.-led AI coalition if they also join Beijing's competing framework. 

Washington launched its Pax Silica initiative last year to secure supply chains for AI models, semiconductors and critical minerals amid an intensifying technology rivalry with Beijing, Reuters reported. About two dozen countries have joined the framework, including close U.S. allies such as Japan, Australia and South Korea, as well as Kazakhstan, a key potential source of critical minerals that has also joined China's rival coalition.

A draft letter prepared by the State Department is addressed to the 35 signatories of a U.S. "AI Opportunity Statement" signed in June, which includes Pax Silica members and other countries that have expressed interest in aligning AI cooperation with Washington, according to a U.S. official and an internal draft reviewed by Reuters. By pressing countries to pick a side, the U.S. hopes to limit China's access to resources in the race to build the most sophisticated AI systems, technology that could confer military or economic advantage, the report added.

The push follows Chinese President Xi Jinping's launch in July of a rival World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which promotes China's open-weight AI technology as a challenge to U.S. influence over the sector, according to the report. Kazakhstan is currently the only country known to have joined both initiatives.

The draft letter warns against straddling both camps. "To be part of everything is to be part of nothing. Signature of the Pax Silica Declaration is not merely a membership subscription, but a commitment," the letter states, according to Reuters, urging countries to "choose deliberately" on AI. It adds that Pax Silica membership "cannot be held alongside membership in duplicative initiatives whose expectations conflict with our own," without naming China directly.

The Pax Silica agreement is designed to push U.S. allies toward joint projects and export controls while reducing reliance on adversaries for critical minerals, AI models and semiconductor chips, according to the report. Reuters said the standoff comes as Chinese open-weight AI models have made rapid gains against proprietary systems from U.S. companies including OpenAI and Anthropic, intensifying the stakes in the broader technology rivalry.

Pax Silica members get access to shared investment opportunities in AI-related projects, while signatories of the AI Opportunity Statement have symbolically agreed to a "common purpose" and "shared vision" with the U.S., according to the statement posted on the State Department's website.