The 2nd Pax Silica Summit, held in Washington on Thursday, saw a coalition of over 30 governments and economies, including new observer nations, convene to address the growing impact of artificial intelligence on global economic growth and competitiveness.The summit emphasised the need for trusted partnerships to build resilient AI ecosystems, attract investment, and ensure shared prosperity. Key announcements included the Declaration on AI Opportunity, committing to pro-growth AI policies and resilient supply chains.Speaking at the summit US Under Secretary of State Jacob S Helberg announced the launch of PaxPass, a platform to streamline the movement of critical AI goods and the Foundry School, a workforce development initiative with Stanford to train advanced manufacturing leaders."Pax Silica is designed to be an action platform. Not another international bureaucracy. It's a practical toolkit that enables trusted partners to solve problems together, pilot new ideas and scale what works. So today we're excited to roll out a series of practical, replicable initiatives that countries across this partnership can adopt, adapt to and build upon. First, many of our governments will sign the Declaration on AI Opportunity, a shared commitment to pro-growth AI policies, trusted technology ecosystems, resilient supply chains and investment in the infrastructure needed to power the AI economy. The declaration reflects a simple but important idea: Governments should not approach AI primarily through the lens of restriction. We should approach it through the lens of opportunity," he said.Helberg also announced the launch of Pax Pass to streamline the movement of critical AI goods."I'm excited to announce a new Paxsilica Artificial Intelligence Assistance project for Pax partners that ship high-value AI supply chain products through Panama. We will launch Pax Pass, an ambitious new platform that has the potential to transform how trusted partners move the critical goods that power the AI economy by combining cargo verification, AI-powered risk assessment and pre-approved expedited processing for trusted shipments. Pax Pass will reduce friction, strengthen supply chain resilience and accelerate trusted trade. To support this effort, the United States is committing $50 million in foreign assistance funding dedicated to the development and deployment of Pax Pass. We're putting our resources behind our vision and demonstrating that trusted partnership is backed by real investment," he said."We will also launch Foundry School, a workforce development initiative built in partnership with Stanford to equip entrepreneurs, engineers and advanced manufacturing leaders across the Paxsilica economies. Foundry School will begin with a seminar series at Stanford gathering the greatest luminaries of advanced manufacturing to teach the principles behind the world's most successful industrial enterprises. In parallel, Stanford and the State Department will develop a first-of-its-kind curriculum for institutions across Paxsilica economies to adopt and teach...Our hope is that this is only the first of a handful of such zones across the Paxsilica network, creating a connected ecosystem where investment, innovation and trusted production reinforce one another across partner countries," he added.Helberg stressed that the need of the hours was to create an environment provided for entrepreneurs to build."The real measure of sovereignty in the AI age is not the ability to recreate yesterday's technologies. It's not even the ability to recreate today's technologies. It is the ability to contribute to tomorrow's breakthroughs. It is what we call innovation sovereignty. Innovation sovereignty means creating the conditions for entrepreneurs to build, for researchers to discover, companies to invest, workers to thrive and trusted partners to specialize, collaborate and compete together at the technological frontier. That is the vision in the AI Opportunity Declaration we're signing today," he said.Speaking at the event, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Lando said the purpose was to align public goals with private capability."Our premise here is simple: align public purpose with private capability. Strip away the friction that has held our firms back and let free enterprise do what no government program ever could. That's the purpose of the AI Opportunity Statement--to send a clear message to the world: We are ready to unleash the power of AI for the benefit of free-market nations all over the world. That statement is especially relevant since over 20 countries support the concept of AI opportunity, which lays out a pro-innovation approach to regulation...We didn't seek a world where every supply chain is a pressure point and every dependence a potential weapon. The answer is to build a new economic order with partners who trust each other," Lando said.The Pax Silica summit highlighted the shift from digital sovereignty to innovation sovereignty, advocating for collaboration over isolation in AI development.