US Circulates One-Page Draft Proposing Formal AI Pact With EU

The US has circulated a one-page draft statement proposing the European Union join a formal artificial intelligence partnership covering chip supply chain security and regulatory coordination, Bloomberg reported on June 25, citing sources and a draft document. Bloomberg's Alberto Nardelli reported the statement was light on specifics, framing the partnership around recognizing "the critical importance of the physical backbone for artificial intelligence — from critical minerals and energy to computer and semiconductor manufacturing" and emphasizing "trusted collaboration, economic security, innovation, and fair competition."

The proposal fits within the broader Pax Silica framework, a multinational pact launched in December 2025 with initial signatories including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Israel, Qatar, the UK, and the UAE. The EU, along with Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands, reportedly joined around June 23, 2026, according to Euronews. Pax Silica is non-binding, with no dedicated joint funding and no mandates compelling member nations to take specific actions — a structure that lowers the barrier to entry for a bloc with internal divisions while limiting how far coordination can practically go.

The stated strategic rationale is to coordinate export controls and co-investment in advanced chips to curb China's technological rise in AI. The arrangement also runs alongside a separate EU-US trade commitment for the bloc to purchase at least $40 billion worth of US AI chips, adding a commercial dimension to the geopolitical alignment.

France has been the most vocal EU skeptic, with officials framing the arrangement as "an attempt to colonise Europe and at odds with the EU's tech sovereignty agenda," while Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands have been more supportive. The Pax Silica Declaration is described as "a political statement that will not interfere with EU internal decision-making" — language that reads as a deliberate accommodation of French-led skepticism.

The honest caveat is that the one-page draft had few details, so the scope of the regulatory coordination element is unclear from current reporting. Whether alignment extends beyond supply chains and export controls into AI governance standards is a question the draft does not appear to answer — and that distinction will determine how much room the EU retains to run its own AI policy independently.