In Shanghai, 29 states led by China have founded a new international organization for Artificial Intelligence. The World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO) aims to set global AI standards and is primarily directed at countries that feel excluded from Western regulations. One day later, state leader Xi Jinping personally opened the concurrently held World AI Conference for the first time.
Wang Yi signs founding agreement of the organization
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi signed the founding agreement on July 16 in Shanghai, as reported by the state news agency Xinhua. UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the ceremony – just two weeks after the UN’s own Geneva summit on AI governance, which ended without binding resolutions. Among the confirmed founding members are, in addition to China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Laos; a total of 29 states signed the document. The organization will be based in Shanghai and will operate as an independent intergovernmental organization, separate from existing UN bodies.
The founding document stipulates that WAICO promotes international cooperation and global governance in the field of AI. The technology should thus remain safe, fair, and beneficial to all of humanity. The organization commits to the principles of the UN Charter and a “human-centered approach” with broad consultation, it further states. A complete, officially published list of all 29 signatory states is not yet available; several reports additionally name Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Venezuela, as well as African and other Asian states as founding members. Beijing officially associates the founding with its already presented Global AI Governance Initiative from 2023, with which Xi Jinping pledged international public goods and capacity building for developing countries in the AI sector.
Xi Jinping advocates for a multipolar AI order
At the opening of the World AI Conference on July 17, Xi Jinping stated, according to Al Jazeera, that AI development should not be the sole endeavor of a single state but requires international cooperation. He further warned against overusing the term national security in the field of AI or prioritizing the security of one country over others. Xi also called for laws, technical oversight, early warning systems, and emergency mechanisms to ensure that AI remains under human control. The official motto of the conference is “Intelligent Partners, Co-create the Future,” a reference to the cooperative claim of the event.
According to the South China Morning Post, it was the first speech by a Chinese president to open the conference, which has been running since 2018. In previous years, Prime Minister Li Qiang took on this role. The speech also came during a tense phase of American-Chinese relations. Shortly before, US President Donald Trump had accused Beijing in a televised address of being responsible for the “greatest compromise of election data in history.”
Western tech companies stay away from the summit
Large US technology companies largely stayed away from the Shanghai summit, according to consistent reports, including PYMNTS and The Next Web. WAICO positions itself outside established frameworks such as the OECD AI Principles, the EU AI Act, and the G7 Hiroshima Process. Beijing is specifically targeting developing countries with affordable, open AI models and formal participation in future rules. Such an offer has not been made in comparable form by the “Trusted Partner” frameworks shaped by the US and the EU, according to several reports. On the Western side, separate proposals for global AI oversight are circulating too, including DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis’s FINRA-style “Standards Body” proposal.
In parallel to the conference, Huawei presented a new data center system, the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, which, according to the company, operates without US semiconductors. The temporal proximity of the tech demonstration and the WAICO founding underscores that China treats governance claims and technological independence from US chips as interconnected goals and consciously presented both on the same stage. The opening ceremony was also attended by Guterres, as well as Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. This added additional diplomatic weight to the summit beyond the actual signatory states.
It will be crucial whether WAICO enforces real standards beyond the founding ceremony or remains a parallel structure without broad impact. It is also unclear whether economies outside the original 29 founding states will join – the organization has not yet announced a timeline for further memberships.
