China has formally established the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), an intergovernmental body headquartered in Shanghai, with 29 founding members signing the agreement on the eve of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC). In his opening address, President Xi Jinping declared that artificial intelligence development “should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation,” and pledged 5,000 training opportunities for developing countries over five years. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, also present, warned against allowing “a handful of countries or companies” to control the technology’s future.

According to Chinese officials, WAICO will coordinate technical standards, joint development, and consultation among members to ensure AI evolves in a “healthy and orderly” manner. Xi’s speech framed open-source AI as a tool to narrow the gap between rich and developing nations, while explicitly opposing the “overstretching of the national security concept” in technology policy — a direct reference to US and EU export restrictions on advanced chips and other technologies. The training programmes, targeting members of ASEAN, the African Union, the Arab League, and BRICS, are designed to build local capacity and, viewed from Beijing, to offer an alternative to Western-dominated AI ecosystems.

Viewed from Washington and Brussels, the initiative represents a strategic challenge to existing governance models. The United States has prioritised private-sector leadership and export controls to maintain its edge, while the European Union has centred its approach on binding regulation, fundamental rights, and developer liability. Neither the US nor major EU states — nor India — joined WAICO; the signatories include Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, and a range of African and Central Asian nations. Analysts in Shanghai note that the organisation’s composition reflects China’s effort to build a governance bloc among Global South countries, many of which face connectivity and computing gaps that Chinese firms are increasingly filling with lower-cost models.

China’s domestic AI market, valued at 1.2 trillion yuan in 2025, has seen daily token consumption surge a thousandfold in two years, and the country leads globally in generative AI patent filings. Its firms, from Moonshot AI to Huawei, are now releasing models and computing architectures that rival top US offerings, while abundant electricity supply gives Chinese data centres a structural cost advantage. The WAICO agreement does not specify binding regulatory powers, but its permanent seat in Shanghai and the presence of UN leadership signal an intent to institutionalise an alternative pole of AI governance. The conference runs through 20 July, with member states expected to begin coordination on standards and capacity-sharing in the months ahead.