Why Kazakhstan Joined Both the American and Chinese AI Initiatives

Abstract

In June 2026 Kazakhstan signed the declaration of Pax Silica, the US State Department’s initiative on AI and supply-chain security. A month later it joined China’s Shanghai-based World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), making it the only Pax Silica signatory that also belongs to the Chinese body. Assel Bitabar argues that this is pragmatism. Kazakhstan lacks the chips, model foundations and cloud capacity that AI depends on, so working with both leading powers is the practical way to get them. Its uranium and critical minerals give it some leverage with each, and it wants a seat where the rules are written. Neither initiative, however, gives it any real capacity to govern the AI it uses. For a smaller state, what these bodies end up doing matters more than it does for Washington or Beijing.