The European Union formally joined the U.S. State Department's Pax Silica initiative Tuesday, with Roberto Viola, the European Commission's director general for communications and technology, signing a declaration at the State Department alongside representatives from the Netherlands, Germany and Greece.
Launched by the State Department late last year, Pax Silica — Latin for "silicon peace" — is designed to secure supply chains for artificial intelligence, including semiconductors and critical raw materials. The State Department describes it as a platform for governments and companies to coordinate investments and accelerate development in sectors strategic to AI, with the goal of boosting production capacity and reducing strategic dependencies.
"Technology must be a safe foundation for our citizens", Viola said before signing. Germany's ambassador to the United States, Jens Hanefeld, said joining the initiative "sends a strong signal of cooperation in times of challenges".
The initiative was developed by Deputy Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, who told the Financial Times it was born from a conviction that existing forums like the G7 and G20 are ill-suited to building networks that support AI innovation. "There is no group specifically designed to govern the AI economy at the moment when artificial intelligence is transforming the structure of the global economy", he said.
Helberg said Pax Silica would help shape a U.S. alternative to frameworks such as the U.N. Global Digital Compact, which he said emphasizes "digital sovereignty" in ways that could push countries toward duplicative, inefficient solutions. "We will end up with something like synchronized mediocrity", he said, arguing instead for a focus on "innovation sovereignty".
Other signatories include Australia, India, Israel, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. The Financial Times reported that several more countries are expected to join this week, bringing the total number of signatories to 24. The outlet noted that the new additions are joining as competition with China intensifies.
A two-day Pax Silica summit opens Thursday at the Donald Trump Institute of Peace in Washington.
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Source: PAP