Xi Jinping Offers Developing Nations AI Training and Warns the West Against Security Overreach
China's president used the World AI Conference in Shanghai to pitch cooperation over competition, and took a clear swipe at US chip export controls.
Key points
- China pledged 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities to developing countries, announced by President Xi Jinping on 18 July 2026.
- 29 countries signed an agreement on 17 July 2026 to create the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, or WAICO, based in Shanghai.
- Xi called for AI to remain "secure and controllable" and always under human oversight.
- Nvidia stated in its 2026 annual report that it is "effectively foreclosed" from competing in China's data-centre computing market.
China's President Xi Jinping took the stage at the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday and made a direct pitch to the developing world: join us in building artificial intelligence together.
Xi promised developing countries 5,000 places in AI training programmes and seminars, and said China would deepen cooperation with three major blocs: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, and the African Union. For ordinary people in those regions, the offer means more access to education and skills in a technology that is fast reshaping how businesses, hospitals, and governments work.
His language was pointed. AI development should not be a "solo performance" by one country, Xi said, but a "symphony of international cooperation." He urged nations to resist stretching national-security arguments to justify blocking other countries from AI technology.
He did not name the United States directly. He did not need to.
The US has spent several years tightening the screws on China's access to advanced computing hardware. The Trump administration put telecoms giant Huawei on a restricted-trade list in 2019. The Biden administration followed in 2022 with sweeping export controls, the rules that limit which chips and chip-making equipment can be sold to China. Those controls were aimed squarely at slowing China's ability to build the powerful computers that modern AI requires.
The impact shows up plainly in Nvidia's books. Nvidia, the American company that makes the graphics processing units, or GPUs, that are the specialised chips AI systems depend on, said in its fiscal year 2026 annual report that it cannot build a product for China's data-centre market that both governments will approve. The company described itself as "effectively foreclosed" from that market, and warned that rivals are using the gap to build bigger customer bases that now challenge Nvidia worldwide.
The day before Xi spoke, CNBC Tech reported that 29 countries had already signed on to a new body: the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, known as WAICO. It will be headquartered in Shanghai. The organisation is a clear signal that China wants to lead an alternative AI governance structure, separate from Western-led forums.
Xi also pressed a safety message. AI must stay "secure and controllable" and always under human control, he said. That framing sits alongside China's domestic rules requiring AI systems to reflect socialist values and pass government approval, so the call for global safety standards carries its own political weight.
For consumers and workers outside China and the US, the practical question is straightforward: which set of AI tools, rules, and training programmes will shape their future? That contest is now officially under way.
