Semiconductors have found a place in contemporary geopolitics. Advanced chips power artificial intelligence systems, telecommunications networks, financial infrastructure, and modern defence platforms, all of which depend on them. This emerging landscape has produced a technology order structured around the control of semiconductor supply chains, advanced computing, and AI hardware, now anchored by the United States through Pax Silica. Where earlier international systems derived influence from industrial production or financial dominance, today, technological capability performs a comparable role. The name itself signals intent:
“Pax” is Latin for peace, and “Silica” refers to the silicon compounds at the heart of chip manufacturing, together suggesting that stable technology supply chains should underpin global peace and prosperity.
What is Pax Silica?
Pax Silica is a US-led initiative launched on 12 December 2025 with the signing of the Pax Silica Declaration at a summit in Washington, D.C., aimed at building “a secure, prosperous, and innovation-driven silicon supply chain, from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics.” It seeks to reduce coercive dependencies, protect capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence, and ensure that aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The founding signatories of the Pax Silica Declaration were the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Israel, the United Kingdom, Greece, Qatar, and the UAE. The Netherlands, Canada, the EU, the OECD, and Taiwan attended as guests or observers but did not sign. India formally signed the Declaration on 20 February 2026, on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, in a ceremony completed by U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor, Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg, and Indian MEITY Secretary S. Krishnan.
The framework is non-binding and describes itself as a “positive-sum partnership”, reiterating that it is not a containment coalition but instead a coordination mechanism for nations that want to remain competitive and technologically sovereign.
The Urgency for Pax Silica
During the pandemic, semiconductor shortages exposed dangerous dependence on production concentrated in East Asia. Taiwan’s centrality to advanced fabrication made any disruption in the Taiwan Strait a potential shock to global industry and defence supply chains. Technology policy hardened as supply-chain shocks and great-power rivalry converged.
AI further elevated the stakes, linking technological capability directly to economic competitiveness and military preparedness. The United States responded to this by imposing export controls on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment.
China’s leverage made this a necessity. China controls approximately 69% of global rare earth mining and nearly 90% of global refining, giving it a near-monopoly over the heavy elements essential for high-performance magnets used in systems ranging from missiles to electric vehicles. In response to US tariff measures, China suspended rare earth exports to the United States and others. Both the United States and the European Union remain heavily exposed to this vulnerability. India too experienced interruptions in rare earth magnet imports from China, directly hitting its automobile and electronics industries. Efforts to build alternative, trusted critical mineral supply chains now sit at the very heart of Pax Silica alongside semiconductor cooperation.
Why India Matters?
India does not sit at the centre of the semiconductor ecosystem and does not manufacture cutting-edge chips at scale, nor does it control high-end fabrication. Yet, India possesses one of the world’s largest pools of semiconductor design engineers, a thriving digital services industry, and one of the most sophisticated digital public infrastructure models globally. It also brings scale that Pax Silica members cannot match in quite the same way.
India has one of the fastest-growing electronics markets, an ambitious defence modernisation programme, and expanding 5G infrastructure, making it a long-term market that justifies capital-intensive investment. Its geostrategic position in the Indo-Pacific adds further weight. India has expanded its industrial policy support, visible in its Union Budget 2026, which provides production-linked incentives and prioritises the India Semiconductor Mission, backed by current investments in semiconductor assembly, testing, and packaging.
Pax Silica’s Significance to India
The U.S. Department of State noted at the signing that India brings “a deep talent pool, processing and refining capacity for critical minerals, investments in AI infrastructure, and an understanding of the importance of trusted technologies.” For India, participation means access to investment, advanced research collaboration, and integration into innovation ecosystems shaping semiconductor and AI development. It also gives India a seat at the table as standards governing AI deployment, trusted infrastructure, and digital security are still being negotiated.
But the risks are equally real. India’s semiconductor and AI ecosystems remain well behind those of other Pax Silica members. Without sustained long-term investment, regulatory consistency, and genuine technology transfer, India could find itself confined to lower-end segments such as packaging and assembly, in some way replacing old dependencies with new ones. India also refines less than 2% of the critical minerals it consumes domestically, and several of its lithium and cobalt projects remain at the exploration stage.
Strategic autonomy is the deeper and more structural concern. India is the first developing country and the first non-treaty ally in the grouping. The coalition could impose export controls and technology-sharing conditions that constrain India’s diplomatic ties with non-member countries. India has traditionally avoided rigid alignment and maintained relationships across multiple power centres, and a technology ecosystem hardening into competing blocs complicates that approach considerably.
Notably, Helberg has stated that “Pax Silica is really not about China, it is about America, we want to secure our supply chains.” But China’s dominance of rare earths is central to the entire logic of the initiative. India must navigate this carefully: participating meaningfully in de-risking supply chains while preserving the flexibility that has long defined its foreign policy.