TLDR: Latin American nations are increasingly pursuing a strategy of ‘digital non-alignment’ in the face of intense competition between the United States and China for dominance in artificial intelligence. This approach seeks to establish interoperable standards and diversified infrastructure, allowing countries to leverage both global ecosystems while safeguarding their sovereignty and fostering regional innovation.
As the global race for artificial intelligence supremacy intensifies, Latin America is charting a distinctive course, advocating for ‘digital non-alignment’ to avoid becoming entangled in the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. This strategic pivot, highlighted in a recent LatinAmerican Post report, emphasizes interoperability, cultural trust, and national sovereignty over exclusive technological dependencies. The decision is poised to shape generations across the region.
The United States has articulated its vision through ‘Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan,’ which frames artificial intelligence as a zero-sum competition. This strategy includes an ‘AI Exports Program’ designed to offer a comprehensive U.S. technology stack—encompassing everything from chips and cloud services to AI models and regulatory frameworks—while encouraging allies to adopt American standards. Latin American officials, in discussions with Americas Quarterly, have likened this initiative to a ‘digital Monroe Doctrine,’ perceiving it as an attempt to establish spheres of influence through technological contracts and code.
In contrast, China has presented its ‘Action Plan on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence,’ promoting AI as a ‘global public good.’ Beijing’s proposal includes commitments to UN-based rule-making, knowledge transfer, and robust infrastructure support for the Global South. Premier Li Qiang has underscored cooperation over competition, bolstering China’s appeal with more affordable technological options and accessible tools like DeepSeek. However, policymakers have expressed concerns that a wholesale adoption of a Chinese ecosystem could merely shift dependencies, exchanging reliance on Washington for reliance on Beijing in terms of updates, patches, and data pipelines. Both superpowers’ strategies are fundamentally designed to tightly integrate partner nations into their respective technological orbits.
Latin America’s emerging ‘third way’ aims to circumvent these binding visions. The concept of digital non-alignment involves developing interoperable standards and diversified infrastructure that enable countries to selectively engage with both ecosystems while rigorously maintaining their national sovereignty. Initial steps towards this independent path are already evident. Chile’s CENIA, for instance, is spearheading LatamGPT, a regional AI model project where training data and developmental roadmaps are guided by Latin American institutions.
Scaling up such initiatives could lead to the formation of a powerful Latin American AI consortium. This collaborative body could pool research funds, share scarce GPU clusters, and collectively own strategic datasets pertinent to regional needs, such as agriculture yields and climate models, all under a unified regional governance framework. Joint procurement strategies would further protect individual nations from being cornered by exclusivity clauses imposed by global tech giants. Institutions like Mercosur, the Pacific Alliance, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are seen as potential anchors for a standards backbone rooted in Latin American values, rather than imported templates. Officials believe such collective action would significantly enhance the negotiating leverage of major regional players like BrasÃlia, Santiago, and Mexico City with both the United States and China.
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The prevailing sentiment among Latin American officials is that the true pitfall lies in believing that the only viable options are either American dominance or Chinese cooperation. Instead, the region is determined to craft its own standards that align with its unique development goals, embed trust directly into its technological advancements, and firmly retain sovereignty. This pivotal decision will ultimately determine whether AI becomes another chapter in the region’s history of dependency or marks a transformative moment where Latin America writes its own narrative in the digital century.
