US asks 35 AI partners to pick a coalition

The US is preparing to tell 35 countries that joining its AI coalition while also signing onto China’s rival framework could cost them access to the US-led group. A Reuters report carried by US News says the draft State Department letter targets signatories of the US AI Opportunity Statement; roughly two dozen countries are already in Pax Silica, including Kazakhstan, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. The message matters beyond diplomacy: teams planning portable open-weight infrastructure should treat model origin, chip access, and critical-minerals policy as one procurement variable, because Washington is moving from export controls toward coalition membership as a condition of trust.