As the United States and China establish competing artificial intelligence (AI) alliances, countries around the world are seeking to benefit from both powers while avoiding being forced to choose sides.
Experts warn that as the rivalry intensifies, opportunities for countries to co-operate with both sides may diminish, eventually forcing them to choose between the US-led Pax Silica initiative and China's proposed World AI Cooperation Organization.
The dilemma centres on whether to rely on America's most advanced chips and AI technologies or China's more affordable, open-source systems.
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of about 21 million people, is among the few attempting to maintain ties with both blocs.
In June, AI Minister Zhaslan Madiyev visited Washington to join a US initiative aimed at strengthening AI supply chains. Just three weeks later, he travelled to Shanghai, where Kazakhstan became a founding member of China's initiative to influence global AI policy.
Membership of Pax Silica could bring Kazakhstan technological partnerships, high-tech manufacturing jobs and access to global AI supply chains. Meanwhile, joining China's organisation alongside 28 other founding members, including Pakistan and Russia, could give the country a voice in shaping regional and international AI standards.
"Everyone is hedging," said Dana Masalimova, a former Kazakh diplomat and independent scholar at Harvard University's Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
"We don't want this binary choice," she said.
Kazakhstan seeks benefits from both powers
Kazakhstan is attracting investment from both countries but faces a difficult balancing act, Masalimova said.
The country possesses critical minerals essential for AI development and offers relatively cheap electricity for powering data centres, which have become a contentious issue in the United States.
Earlier this year, Kazakhstan signed an investment agreement worth up to $10 billion involving Nvidia to develop a data centre hub in the country.
Chinese investment is also growing. Local officials said Chinese foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan reached a record $2.8 billion in 2025.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in July to expand co-operation under Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Washington applies pressure as Beijing courts partners
Both Washington and Beijing are using access to AI technologies to expand their international influence.
US President Donald Trump said last month that "whoever wins AI, wins". US officials and technology companies have accused China of large-scale AI "distillation", a process of extracting capabilities from advanced American models.
Beijing has rejected the allegations, accusing Washington of seeking an AI monopoly by restricting China's access to some of the world's most advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
The US has indicated that its Pax Silica initiative, which implicitly targets China, will be limited to trusted partners.
"Countries can't be trusted partners in Pax Silica while substantively engaging in initiatives that advance a competing vision for super intelligence," the US State Department said, using the Trump administration's preferred term for AI.
China, meanwhile, presents its proposed World AI Cooperation Organization as an open and inclusive platform.
"As both major countries in AI, China and the United States should leverage respective strengths in AI rather than guarding against each other," the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a statement. "AI should not be owned by major countries."
Kyle Chan, a fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, said the different approaches reflect their strategic positions.
Beijing needs to attract developing countries and build an alternative coalition, while Washington already has an extensive network of allies. This gives countries that maintain relations with both sides considerable leverage, he said.
Indonesia, Singapore also balance competing interests
Indonesia, which possesses resources such as nickel and copper that are vital to AI and other technologies, is also seeking to benefit from both powers. The country has joined China's proposed AI organisation.
"We should be able to be part of both, put it that way. And choose the best system," Mari Pangestu, vice-chair of Indonesia's National Economic Council, told reporters at an event organised by the University of Hong Kong Business School.
US AI companies are also expanding their presence in other countries. Anthropic, for example, is establishing its latest Asian office in Singapore, which has said it is considering joining China's AI organisation.
Saudi Arabia is pursuing a similar strategy. AI start-up Humain unveiled a platform in September built on an open model developed by a Chinese AI company. The kingdom also has an agreement with Nvidia to expand its AI computing capacity using advanced chips.
France, another ambitious AI developer, is pursuing an independent path through its start-up Mistral. The company's new model, released this month, reportedly outperforms some advanced Chinese models.
Japan remains closely aligned with the United States on strategic and security matters, including advanced semiconductors, trusted AI and technical standards. However, it will continue considering cheaper Chinese AI models for applications involving lower risks, said Takahiro Tsuchiya, a professor at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.
Challenging the leading AI powers remains difficult
For countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany, which have considerable economic and military capabilities but lack powerful home-grown frontier AI models, alignment with the United States may be essential to securing access to data centres and chip agreements with American companies.
Anton Leicht and Sam Winter-Levy of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said their access to advanced AI systems essentially "depends on the whims of policymakers in Washington and Beijing".
As a result, these countries may have limited influence over the future direction of AI.
China has been narrowing the technological gap with the United States in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced AI capabilities, although it continues to trail the leading American technologies in some areas.
Beijing's open-source approach also gives other countries an alternative to US technology. China has provided financial support to developing countries seeking to build their own AI ecosystems, said Alberto Lemma, a research fellow at ODI Global.
According to the AidData research laboratory at William & Mary, a public university in Virginia, China has provided official-sector grants and loans for projects and activities using or supporting AI technologies in at least 77 low- and middle-income countries.
Major recipients include Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Bangladesh, Senegal, Cameroon and Kenya.
Public attitudes are also shifting. Recent Pew Research Center findings indicate that people in middle-income countries are becoming more positive towards China and more trusting of its approach to AI and technology regulation.
Despite these developments, many countries remain reluctant to align exclusively with either power because each offers different advantages and disadvantages.
"Don't want to pick a side ... because there are advantages and disadvantages to each technology stack," said Aalok Mehta, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He warned that most countries may eventually have few viable options because they cannot independently develop advanced frontier AI models.
Nevertheless, governments worldwide are considering how to maintain control over their own AI capabilities, a concept known as AI sovereignty.
"Maybe no other country than the US and China can really build these very large, powerful models," he said.