U.S. Expands AI Supply Chain Alliance, Trump Says "China Can't Catch Up with the U.S."

U.S. President Trump emphasized on Wednesday that the United States is "far ahead of China" in the field of artificial intelligence and said that if the U.S. maintains a clear strategy, "they can't catch up with us." At the same time, senior officials at the U.S. Department of State revealed that Washington is seeking new agreements with eight allied countries to strengthen the supply chain for AI chips and critical minerals, indicating that the technological competition between the U.S. and China is intensifying.

Trump said during a cabinet meeting: "Not to mention the field of artificial intelligence, we are leading China in this area, and we are leading by a lot. They can't catch up. We must be smart, but if we remain smart, they will never catch up with us. They know this."

The U.S. media Bloomberg News reported the day before that according to Jacob Helberg, the U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, the U.S. will launch new cooperation with eight countries, including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the UAE, and Australia, to establish a safer and more controllable core supply chain for AI. The first meeting will be held on December 12 at the White House, where the U.S. will hold meetings with counterparts from the eight allied countries.

Helberg said the agenda includes energy, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and transportation logistics. He emphasized that these countries were chosen because they control important chip technologies or key resources.

He said: "It's clear that the competition in the field of artificial intelligence is a two-power rivalry between the U.S. and China. We hope to maintain a positive and stable relationship with China, but we are also prepared to compete and ensure that U.S. companies can continue to develop world-changing technologies without being restricted by any coercive dependencies."

He also pointed out that the new plan is different from previous ones, starting from an 'America-centric' strategy and covering all technical aspects related to AI, not just critical minerals.

Before this, the U.S. has been working with allies to break China's monopoly on rare earth supplies. However, according to data from the International Energy Agency, China has over 90% of the global rare earth and permanent magnet refining capacity, while Malaysia ranks second with only 4%.

In the AI industry race, the U.S. government restricts China's access to top-tier chips while actively supporting domestic companies. Trump announced in August that the U.S. government would use funds from the CHIPS Act to acquire 10% non-voting shares in Intel, making it one of the company's major shareholders, which was seen as a "U.S. version of state capitalism."

At the same time, despite previously tightening export controls on advanced GPUs, Trump ultimately approved NVIDIA and AMD to sell specially designed AI chips H20 and MI308 to China, but they had to return 15% of their sales revenue to the U.S. government. Critics called this move a "export tax," but both companies accepted the agreement.

At the beginning of this year, Trump revoked the AI safety executive order issued by his predecessor Biden and advocated a "deregulation and innovation" approach. He even proposed adding provisions to federal laws to limit states from independently formulating AI regulations.

On the international governance level, the U.S. emphasizes deregulation and promoting industrial development, while China pushes for the establishment of a global AI governance mechanism. China again proposed the establishment of the "World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO)" at the October APEC meeting, emphasizing the creation of a more inclusive international rule platform.

The website of the journal Nature reported that China primarily advocates the participation of the Global South and has proposed that the headquarters of WAICO be located in Shanghai. Although the organization is unlikely to enforce regulations on countries in the short term, it is seen as a possible way to build international consensus.

Experts believe that China's move has both economic and diplomatic motivations. On one hand, setting standards helps its AI products go global; on the other hand, Beijing hopes to demonstrate leadership in global governance issues, described as trying to become the "big brother of the Global South."

Under the tense geopolitical situation, the differences in positions on AI governance have become more pronounced. The U.S. emphasizes innovation and competition, China promotes a multilateral framework and international rules; Europe advocates security and transparency, while developing countries worry about being forced to take sides.

Samm Sacks, a researcher at Yale University, stated at a seminar held by the U.S. think tank Brookings Institution in October that many developing countries do not want to be drawn into the U.S.-China confrontation. If the U.S. overly promotes AI policies under a "dominant" framework, it may weaken its appeal.

Source: rfi

Original: toutiao.com/article/1850442554321032/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.