The European Union, Germany, the Netherlands and Greece have newly joined "Pax Silica," a US-led artificial intelligence supply chain cooperation body. As the United States and the Western bloc compete with China for leadership in advanced technology, efforts to build an economic security bloc centered on AI supply chains are gaining momentum.
According to the Financial Times on Sunday, the countries' membership was announced alongside the opening of the Pax Silica summit held in Washington, D.C. Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State and known as the architect of the initiative, said in an interview with the FT that Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan and Panama are also set to join this week.
The United States launched Pax Silica last year to secure the core supply chains of the AI industry, including semiconductors, critical minerals and energy. Currently participating countries include South Korea, Japan, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, Israel, Singapore and Qatar. Once the new memberships are finalized, the total number of member countries will rise to 24.
Helberg explained that Pax Silica originated from the recognition that existing multilateral bodies such as the Group of Seven (G7) or the Group of 20 (G20) make it difficult to build a cooperation network capable of supporting the AI economy. "While AI is fundamentally changing the structure of the global economy, there is no international body specifically designed for the AI economy," he said. "Pax Silica will play a role in promoting innovation amid the policy debate surrounding AI development."
He also stressed that Pax Silica would serve as an American alternative to the United Nations' Global Digital Compact, which emphasizes "digital sovereignty." His argument is that strengthening digital sovereignty on a country-by-country basis could lead to duplicate investment and inefficiency. "In the end, everyone could fall into a 'synchronized mediocrity' in which all remain at a similar level," Helberg said. "What we should pursue is not digital sovereignty but innovation sovereignty."
He said that more than 20 countries are set to sign a joint statement this week stating that an AI ecosystem should be built through cooperation among trusted partners.
Helberg stressed that Pax Silica is fundamentally different from China's state-led economic zone initiative, the "Belt and Road." He pointed out that the Belt and Road was "led by state-run institutions lacking transparency, had low efficiency in capital allocation, and consequently caused a debt trap."
The United States also plans to use the meeting as an occasion to announce a plan to establish an economic security zone with Kazakhstan to expand critical mineral supply chains. "The goal is to build a new level of strategic partnership with Central Asia, where US influence has been limited until now," Helberg said. "Historically, the United States has had almost no presence in Central Asia."
