The intensification of U.S.-China technological competition has created both opportunities and constraints for Global Majority countries—economically developing countries within Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania—seeking to establish independent AI capabilities.
Escalating trade restrictions, such as tariffs and export controls on items foundational to developing AI technologies, including advanced semiconductors, critical minerals, and computing infrastructure, have transformed these two superpowers into potential partners or gatekeepers for Global Majority AI aspirations. This dynamic creates a complex strategic environment where technological access is increasingly politicized and geographically constrained. With Global Majority countries aiming to strengthen their respective AI ecosystems, intentional partnerships are needed to overcome historical challenges.
Structural development challenges have historically impeded Global Majority countries from achieving significant breakthroughs in AI research and deployment. These barriers include insufficient computational infrastructure, limited access to high-quality datasets, constrained research funding, persistent brain drain of technical talent, and limited financial resources to devote to AI.
In response, diverse stakeholders have emerged to address these capacity gaps, including philanthropic organizations, multilateral development banks, bilateral development agencies, and multinational technology corporations. However, despite its technological leadership and historical role in international development, the United States has maintained a notably limited presence in global AI capacity-building initiatives.
The current administration’s “America First” policy framework has reinforced this peripheral role, extending protectionist approaches from traditional trade policy into the domains of AI development and governance. This inward-facing orientation risks relegating the United States to the margins of international AI cooperation efforts precisely when technological partnerships are becoming increasingly consequential for global influence and economic development.
While international development agencies from countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, and Germany are increasing their support for international AI capacity building, the shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development, including its digital development initiatives, has had a reverberating impact.
China’s extensive engagement across economically developing economies through digital infrastructure deployment via the Digital Silk Road demonstrates the potential benefits and inherent risks of involvement by major economic powers in Global Majority AI capacity-building. This engagement has been supplemented by rising interest from Russia and the United Arab Emirates in forging global AI partnerships. While these partnerships can accelerate digital transformation and economic growth, they also generate concerns about technological and economic dependency, data sovereignty, and alignment with authoritarian governance models.
For the United States, AI capacity-building partnerships with the Global Majority should focus on strengthening local digital infrastructure, cultivating indigenous technical talent, and supporting governance frameworks grounded in transparency, accountability, and inclusive development.
These efforts are critical to ensuring that Global Majority countries have real agency in shaping their AI futures, rather than remaining dependent as markets for imported technologies or sources of critical minerals and data labor. U.S withdrawal from international AI cooperation could exacerbate global inequalities in technological access and capabilities, potentially undermining international stability through increased digital divides and economic disparities.
By providing credible alternatives to authoritarian models advanced by China, Russia, and increasingly assertive regional powers such as the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. can help close widening digital divides while advancing its own strategic goals: promoting democracy, securing interoperable technology markets, and sustaining leadership in setting the global norms and standards that will govern the future of AI.
More importantly, the U.S. can demonstrate that it remains a viable and trustworthy partner for strengthening AI capacity worldwide. This requires moving beyond rhetoric toward concrete action, which includes reinstating and expanding international development programs and creating multilateral funding mechanisms that prioritize locally-led AI initiatives over top-down technology transfers. It also entails supporting policy platforms that enable Global Majority countries to have seats at the table where standards are set, norms are established, and regulatory frameworks are designed.
The United States has historically thrived as the world’s great convener, drawing strength from its diversity and its ability to bridge different perspectives and interests. This moment demands that same spirit of inclusive leadership. While Global Majority countries will develop AI capabilities with or without U.S. partnership, the United States should help shape a future where AI development strengthens democratic values, reduces inequality, and reflects the needs of the world’s majority.