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.
