US and China are building competing AI blocs

The United States was preparing a letter warning countries that they could be excluded from its AI coalition if they joined Beijing’s competing framework.[2] The State Department draft was addressed to 35 signatories of a US AI Opportunity Statement signed in June.[2] The evidence describes a letter in preparation, not a warning already delivered or an exclusion already imposed. About two dozen countries had joined Pax Silica, including Japan, Australia and South Korea.[2] Washington launched Pax Silica the previous year to secure supply chains for AI models, semiconductors and critical minerals.[2]

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the rival World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization in July.[2] CNN reported that the initiative had attracted 29 countries, including Russia, Indonesia and Pakistan.[3] The competition is not only about formal membership: CNN reported that Chinese open-weight models had rapidly gained ground against proprietary systems from OpenAI and Anthropic.[2] Such models can be downloaded, customized and run without hefty fees to American firms, according to CNN.[3] An inexpensive model may be more useful to some users than a slightly more capable system tied to an expensive subscription and foreign cloud access.[3]

CNN reported that global usage of Chinese models rose from below 15% to above 54% in a year, citing OpenRouter leaderboard data.[3] It also reported that American companies including Airbnb, DoorDash and Shopify had adopted Chinese AI models.[3] Companies generally prefer to diversify technology suppliers rather than choose one side, Olander said.[3] At the same time, US chip-access restrictions and smaller capital markets have pushed Chinese developers toward open models as a way to compete with leading US systems, CNN reported.[3] These trends make a purely political framing harder to apply to technology purchasing.

Kazakhstan was the only country then known to have joined both the US and Chinese AI initiatives, according to Reuters; it is also a potential source of critical minerals.[2] The United States hopes that pressing countries to choose sides will deprive China of resources for advanced AI development.[2] China’s embassy in Washington said China opposes politicizing trade and technology issues.[2] CNN reported that the US-China summit produced little AI progress beyond a formal dialogue and a bilateral communication channel.[3] The evidence points to competing political aims alongside practical incentives to keep options open.