Countries around the world are facing growing pressure to choose between two rival artificial intelligence groups led by the United States and China.
The U.S.-led group is called Pax Silica. China’s group is the World AI Cooperation Organization, which launched with 29 founding countries, including Pakistan and Russia.
Experts say the window for countries to choose freely may be narrowing. Many nations must weigh America’s most advanced chips against China’s cheaper, open-source AI systems.
Kazakhstan Tries to Join Both Sides
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of about 21 million people, has joined both groups. In June, its AI minister, Zhaslan Madiyev, visited Washington to join Pax Silica.
Three weeks later, he went to Shanghai to sign on as a founding member of China’s AI organization.
“Everyone is hedging,” said Dana Masalimova, a former Kazakhstan diplomat and associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. “We don’t want this binary choice.”
Kazakhstan has rich critical minerals and cheap electricity for data centers. Earlier this year, it signed an investment deal worth up to $10 billion involving Nvidia to build a “data center valley.”
Chinese money is also flowing in. Local officials say Chinese foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan hit a record $2.8 billion in 2025.
Washington and Beijing Send Different Messages
President Donald Trump said last month that “whoever wins AI, wins.” U.S. officials and AI companies have accused China of large-scale “distillation,” or extracting capabilities from American models. Beijing rejects those claims.
The U.S. State Department said countries “can’t be trusted partners in Pax Silica while substantively engaging in initiatives that advance a competing vision for super intelligence.”
China’s embassy in Washington took a different tone. “AI should not be owned by major countries,” it said.
Kyle Chan of The Brookings Institution said Beijing must court other nations to build a coalition, while Washington already has a strong network of allies. He said that gives power to “swing countries.”
Indonesia, rich in nickel and copper, has joined China’s group. “We should be able to be part of both,” said Mari Pangestu of Indonesia’s National Economic Council.
Singapore, where Anthropic is setting up its latest Asia office, says it is considering joining China’s organization. In September, Saudi AI startup Humain launched a platform built on a Chinese open model, while the kingdom also holds a chip deal with Nvidia.
Japan stays closely aligned with the U.S. on chips and standards. However, one expert said it will still use cheaper Chinese models for “lower-risk applications.”
China has funded AI-related projects in at least 77 low- and middle-income countries, according to the AidData research lab at William & Mary. Top recipients include Nigeria, Zambia and Kenya.
“Every country in the world in some way or another is thinking about AI sovereignty,” said Aalok Mehta of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
France is trying to chart its own path. Its startup Mistral released a new model this month that outperforms some advanced Chinese models.
