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TANVI RATNA: India, AI and America’s new 'Global South' strategy

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22.02.2026

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NEW DELHI – The massive AI summit in India this week looked, on the surface, like a familiar spectacle: world leaders and technology executives converging in New Delhi, headline-grabbing investment numbers, and carefully worded joint statements. It was the largest global AI summit to date, and the first hosted in the Global South.

I was on the ground through the summit’s closed-door sessions, bilateral events, and formal signings. While most coverage focused on press releases and piecemeal deal announcements, something far more strategic was unfolding.

FILE-U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands before their meeting at Hyderabad House, Feb. 25, 2020, in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file / AP Newsroom)

In the span of a few days, the United States quietly assembled a full playbook for the Global South—how emerging economies adopt artificial intelligence, how that adoption is financed, how it is secured. The United States paired AI diffusion with supply-chain security and anchored both in India, signaling a shift in how it intends to project technological leadership at a moment when domestic politics are pulling inward. This system has two parts.

The first is the supply chain and critical resources side with Pax Silica. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios all showed up in New Delhi to sign an agreement welcoming India into the Pax Silica. The declaration formalizes cooperation across critical minerals, semiconductor manufacturing,........

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