US will ‘trust but verify’ in Pax Silica AI coalition

• Eight signatories to Pax Silica
• Aims to limit China’s AI strength
• US cautious about its partners

The US is pushing to build a close-knit group of allies around artificial intelligence, with a focus on tightening rules and strengthening how critical AI technology is made and supplied.

A new AI-focused coalition led by the US would require counterparts, including Gulf partners, to “implement very specific, pretty strict standards,” Jacob Helberg, undersecretary for economic affairs at the State Department, said this week.  

Helberg’s remarks offer insights into how Washington is framing AI as a national-security issue, linking technological leadership directly to supply-chain resilience, trusted partners and strategic infrastructure as sources of long-term economic and geopolitical power.

The US launched “Pax Silica” in December. The initiative wants to limit China’s dominance in critical minerals and other vital inputs and infrastructure for AI, and protect the edge of the US and its allies in the design and fabrication of next-generation semiconductors.  

Eight countries have since joined, including most recently Qatar and the UAE. 

One of the three priorities of Pax Silica is to facilitate conversations among signatories to reach a “baseline understanding” of what counts as “sensitive technology” or “critical infrastructure,” Helberg said at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. 

“If this is the cohort of countries with whom we are making a generational decision about integrating our supply chains, because we’re saying these are countries that we trust, we want to make sure that we’re not gonna wake up tomorrow and read a headline that their biggest port is now owned by foreign military,” Helberg said.

The other Pax Silica signatories are Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the United Kingdom. India is expected to become a member next month, according to the US State Department.

Helberg said the US would not take countries at their word but rather follow a “trust but verify” approach when it comes to accessing protocols to safeguard data and intellectual property, and prevent technology leaks to China or other US adversaries.

Pax Silica will also advance specific joint projects, Helberg said. It will unfold in coming months through “functional working groups” that will be designed to harness each member country’s individual strengths and expertise.

“On projects, our vision for Pax Silica extends to powerful combinations of strategic partnerships and joint ventures at every layer of the supply-chain stack, including energy, minerals, manufacturing, AI infrastructure, logistics, and financing,” Helberg said.

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In the press release announcing the UAE membership earlier this month, the State Department said the Emirates’ “leadership” in sectors such as energy and advanced tech makes it “an indispensable partner in this coalition”.

Helberg spoke in the US capital upon returning from a trip to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel, according to the State Department.

In the UAE, he and minister of state Saeed Mubarak Al Hajeri led bilateral trade and investment discussions under the Eleventh US-UAE Economic Policy Dialogue. Talks covered ongoing and future cooperation in the technology, financial, economic and other realms, according to a joint statement issued this week.