As the capital expenditure required to train and run artificial intelligence (AI) models surges toward US$750 billion annually, the US is building a new geopolitical architecture to protect it.
Pax Silica is a US Department of State initiative designed to secure every layer of the AI and semiconductor supply chain. The framework aims to insulate western technology ecosystems from foreign disruption by aligning trusted partners across all stages of extraction and manufacturing.
Jacob Helberg, under secretary of state for economic affairs, launched Pax Silica in December 2025 as the state department’s primary mechanism for AI and supply chain security.
The coalition was formed largely in response to Beijing’s dominant position in critical mineral processing.
At the time of this writing, 24 nations signed onto the declaration.
What is the rationale behind Pax Silica?
China currently refines approximately 90 percent of global rare earth elements, which are the chemical inputs required to manufacture advanced logic chips and high-capacity memory.
Following Beijing's implementation of rare earth export controls in 2025, Washington moved to establish an alternative, closed-loop industrial network.
"If the 20th century ran on oil and steel, the 21st century runs on compute and the minerals that feed it," Helberg stated regarding the launch of the alliance.
To counter this, the initiative seeks to mobilize private industry capital to build trusted supply lines while protecting member economies against industrial overcapacity, predatory dumping, and non-market practices.
Following its second major summit in June 2026, the alliance expanded significantly, adding 10 new partners including the EU, Germany, the Netherlands and Argentina.
How will Pax Silica achieve its objectives?
Pax Silica structures its network around the specific technical and material capabilities held by participating nations. This ensures the coalition controls distinct segments of the tech manufacturing process.
Japan controls critical chemical inputs, with suppliers like JSR and Shin-Etsu dominating the photoresists required for extreme ultraviolet lithography machines.
South Korea contributes memory chip production through Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) and SK Hynix (KRX:000660,OTCPL:HXSCL), supplying the high-bandwidth memory required for advanced AI accelerators.
To secure raw materials outside of Chinese jurisdiction, the alliance relies on Australia through mining operators like Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC,OTCQX:LYSDY).
In the Middle East and Southeast Asia, member states provide the necessary compute infrastructure. The United Arab Emirates commands massive data center buildouts, including a 5 gigawatt campus in Abu Dhabi, while Singapore hosts 1.4 gigawatts of regional data center capacity and manufactures a fifth of global chipmaking equipment.
Other nations contribute specialized administrative and security capabilities. Panama is currently hosting a pilot project to develop an AI supply chain credentialing platform, which is designed to accelerate customs clearing for critical mineral and hardware shipments.
Crucially, Taiwan, home to contract foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM), recently entered into a bilateral economic security framework with Washington.
Implementation backlash and criticisms
Despite the alignment, the program currently faces local resistance in regards to its on-the-ground implementation.
When the Philippines joined the bloc in April 2026, the government sought to leverage its untapped copper, gold, nickel, zinc and silver reserves to transition from lower-margin chip packaging into higher-value processing.
To support this transition, the state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) designated a 1,620 hectare site in New Clark City, Capas, Tarlac, as a Pax Silica "Golden Node." The BCDA projected the tech hub would attract US$10 billion in initial investment and create nearly 190,000 jobs.
However, the buildout triggered intense opposition from domestic advocacy groups. Reports show that over 30 percent of the Capas municipal area consists of productive agricultural land. These groups warned that farmers and indigenous communities in nearby affected barangays face displacement without formal recognition of their ancestral lands.
Furthermore, there are challenges to the BCDA’s claims that the facility will run on clean energy. Hyperscale AI data centers require continuous, non-intermittent baseload power. Meeting the site's energy demand exclusively through solar farms would require over a thousand additional hectares of land, likely forcing the facility to rely heavily on fossil fuels.
Future trends and outlook
Global data center spending is projected to reach US$750 billion by the end of 2026, driving sustained demand across the semiconductor sector. Despite periodic volatility, analysts view chipmakers as the primary beneficiaries of this capital deployment.
Financial services firm Jefferies predicts memory prices will rise 40 to 50 percent in the third quarter of 2026, followed by another 30 to 40 percent increase in the fourth quarter.
Nicholas Mersch of Purpose Investments noted that market expectations for semiconductor earnings remain structurally supported by these capital deployments.
“If you go back just to the beginning of the year, up until March 31 SOX was essentially flat. Now, it’s up (again). The entire market is saying, 'All this CAPEX is being spent on the AI ecosystem overall, so where is that going? Who are the beneficiaries of that?' It’s all going to the semiconductor stocks,” Mersch told the Investing News Network.
To fund this infrastructure buildout, technology companies are increasingly relying on private credit and asset-backed debt structures alongside corporate cash flows.
“There’s still a lot of confidence in their free cashflow,” Mersch said. “Where it gets a little bit more indicative of the market is the Oracle side of it, because if you look at a lot of their leverage ratios, and you look at the amount of debt they’re issuing versus their free cashflow, it is a little bit more highly leveraged.”
Pax Silica seeks to serve as the geopolitical insurance policy designed to protect those balance sheets from supply chain disruption.
Yet as the alliance expands, the initiative’s success will depend on if Washington and its allies can balance the hyper-aggressive economics of the growing AI rollout against the operational realities of actual execution across all of its signatories.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.
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