The global AI landscape is increasingly shaped by two competing world orders: Washington’s Pax Silica and Beijing’s World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The two initiatives reflect sharply different visions of how power, technology and access to critical AI infrastructure should be organized.
Pax Silica, which the U.S. launched in December 2025, purportedly seeks to secure global supply chains for semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, AI technologies and rare earth minerals. Washington positions it as a cooperative organization, rather than a way to enforce its own policies.
The China-led WAICO, on the other hand, was launched in Shanghai in July 2026 with 29 founding members. WAICO positions itself as a champion of the interests of emerging economies and of accessible AI, drawing upon the impressive surge in open-weight models from Chinese developers.
Originally, Washington said it wouldn’t stop Pax Silica members from working with China. The architect of Pax Silica, Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg, suggested he wasn’t interested in a “purity test” at a Hudson Institute event in January. “If you held everyone to that standard, you would quickly run out of friends,” he said.
