Israel on Friday joined the US’s Pax Silica Initiative to cooperate on supply chains for artificial intelligence at an international conference in Washington.
The pact will include Israel alongside the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
The summit is “the beginning of a new golden era of cooperation on AI and supply chain security,” said the White House, bringing together the countries with the “most cutting-edge AI supply chain ecosystems.”
Israel was represented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic adviser Avi Simhon, Finance Ministry chief economist Shmuel Abramzon and National AI Directorate head Erez Askal, said the Prime Minister’s Office.
“The initiative aims to build a secure, resilient and innovative technological ecosystem across the entire value chain — from the extraction of critical minerals and energy, through advanced manufacturing and semiconductors, to AI infrastructure, data centers and logistics,” said the PMO, echoing language from an American press statement.
“Its goal is to shape a new, sustainable economic order for the age of artificial intelligence and to ensure shared prosperity for the participating countries.”
“Israel’s accession to the US-led Pax Silica Initiative is a mark of distinction for Israel and for Israel’s high-tech industry,” said Simhon in a statement, “which is regarded as a global leader in innovation and artificial intelligence.”
National Economic Council chairman Avi Simhon attends a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on September 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The US said other countries would join the pact, adding that countries would work together to ensure a timely supply chain, though it was vague on the practicalities.
“We believe that this gathering and grouping matters because the global system is shifting from ‘just in time’ to strategically aligned,” said Jacob Helberg, the State Department’s undersecretary for economic affairs.
“Pax Silica ultimately ensures that these countries have reliable access to the inputs and infrastructure that determine AI competitiveness,” he told reporters ahead of the signing.
Other countries participating in the meetings in Washington on supply chains, without formally joining the Pax Silica, were the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as the European Union as an institution.
The signing in Washington came despite US President Donald Trump this week announcing he will allow the export of Nvidia’s advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, reversing a decision by his predecessor Joe Biden, who voiced national security concerns in sharing the key technology.
View of the Nvidia Corporation offices at the Yokneam High-Tech Park, September 8, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash9)
China has quickly taken a dominant position in the race for resources in the fast-growing area of artificial intelligence, mining around 70 percent of key rare earths.
Israel, meanwhile, is home to a thriving high-tech sector, including the R&D for many of Nvidia’s high-end processors and networking chips.
The appetite for Nvidia’s chips has been driving the company’s stock price rapidly since early 2023, turning it into the world’s first $5 trillion company at the end of October.
Netanyahu said earlier this month that technological innovation, including AI, was one of his two main goals for Israel moving forward, saying he believes “there’s another revolution coming.”
