Rest of World · September 16, 2026 · On the brief until September 30, 2026

Playing both sides of the U.S.-China AI “Cold War”

Political ScienceInternational LawEconomics

THE AI ANGLE

Driving strategic geopolitical alignment and supply chain diversification across different layers of the technology stack.

Countries across the Global South, including Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan, are actively splitting their investments between American hardware and Chinese open-source AI models rather than choosing a single superpower. This multi-vendor hedging strategy complicates Washington's efforts to isolate Beijing's technology ecosystem and forces developing nations to balance technological sovereignty against great-power diplomatic pressures. For scholars of international political economy and law, this illustrates how middle powers leverage fragmented tech stacks and competing multilateral initiatives to preserve strategic autonomy.

Summary written by AI Business Lens with an AI model from the article at restofworld.org. It is not the article, and the publisher has not reviewed it. For publishers.

THE TEACHING ANGLE

The article provides a rich case study on whether middle powers can sustain non-alignment by decoupling infrastructure layers—such as buying U.S. semiconductors while running Chinese software—when facing potential sanctions, technological ultimatums, and competing governance frameworks like Pax Sili

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Playing both sides of the U.S.-China AI “Cold War”

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