The United States and eight partners have signed the San Francisco Declaration on the Secure Foundations of Enduring Prosperity, a new text under the US-led Pax Silica initiative on AI supply chains, the Financial Times reported on 15 November, citing Jacob Helberg, the US under secretary of state for economic affairs. The signers named are Japan, Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, South Korea, India, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Commission are expected to sign next week.
The eight named partners are 8 of the 25 signatories on the State Department’s Pax Silica list, or 32%, by our arithmetic; with the four expected next week the count would reach 12 of 25, or 48%. The signing comes three days before the APEC leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen on 18-19 November, where, the report says, President Donald Trump is preparing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on sovereign AI, why states treat AI compute as strategic. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss this declaration.
The key insight: As we read the reports, the San Francisco Declaration turns Pax Silica from a shared statement of vision into a shared list: the signers agreed, the FT reports, to establish a joint list of critical AI technologies and supply chains to protect. Eight partners are named as signing so far, 8 of the 25 listed Pax Silica signatories, or 32%, by our arithmetic.
According to the FT report, as relayed by Newsmax, the signers agreed to establish “a joint list of critical technologies and supply chains supporting artificial intelligence that require greater protection to counter China’s influence”. The report says the declaration calls for stronger protections against the theft or unauthorised transfer of technologies that could give hostile actors military or intelligence advantages, and for working groups on AI supply-chain vulnerabilities and “economic hubs” to attract investment.
Helberg told the FT the agreement would help countries identify sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure needed to develop what Trump has called “super intelligence”, and share information on where supply chains should be diversified. The report lists semiconductors, critical minerals and energy infrastructure as the supply chains Pax Silica covers. No dollar figure appears in the report.
A draft of the text, seen by Euronews on 12 November, states that “economic security is fundamental to national security, and that no nation can be secure without securing its critical systems and technologies from those that would do it harm”. Euronews says the draft calls for a “common understanding” on protecting sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure. The draft concludes, per Euronews: “We affirm that the safeguarding of these sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure is a shared endeavour; that the security of each signatory is strengthened by the vigilance of all; and that we engage in this common cause as trusted partners”.
The 25 signatories on the State Department’s Pax Silica list, by their status for the San Francisco Declaration as of 15 November. Signers named and those expected next week are from the Financial Times report as relayed by Newsmax; the report says the signers include these countries. Founding signatories from the Australian government’s record of the 12 December 2025 signing. Shares are our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
JUST IN: U.S. & 8 partners sign deal to protect AI supply chains & reduce reliance on China ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi.
Polymarket posted the news at 18:39 UTC on 15 November, about an hour after the Financial Times report. Its count of eight partners matches the eight signers named in the FT report as relayed by Newsmax; the names in this piece come from that report, not from this post.
Who Signed, and Who Has Not Yet
Five of the six partners that signed the original Pax Silica Declaration in Washington on 12 December 2025, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Israel, are among the countries named, by our arithmetic from the Australian government’s record of that signing. Singapore, the sixth founder, is not named in the report as relayed. India, Qatar and the UAE were not among the countries that signed at the 12 December 2025 summit; the State Department marked Qatar’s signing and the UAE’s joining in January 2026.
EU governments asked for more time. Agence Europe reported on 13 November that EU member states had asked for more time to align the text with the EU’s approach to economic security, and that the European Commission had been authorised to negotiate on behalf of the EU27. Euronews reported that some member states wanted objective criteria for what counts as a sensitive technology, and that the Commission proposed a note saying the EU reads “superintelligence” as artificial intelligence.
Euronews also reported that Washington is proposing a Pax Silica working group to explore innovation-friendly regulatory approaches, and that it has long opposed the EU’s AI Act. The term “super intelligence” has appeared in allied texts before: the Quad ministers used it in a release we reported on 1 November.
The Timing Before Shenzhen
A Shenzhen district government lists the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting for 18-19 November. The report says Washington has accused Beijing of failing to meet commitments under the trade truce the two leaders reached in late 2025, and places the declaration within a broader US push to reduce dependence on China for critical materials, particularly rare earth minerals.
As we read the signer list, the declaration so far rests on the original core: five of the six non-US founders of December 2025 are named, plus India, Qatar and the UAE; the four European signatures expected next week would take the count to 12 of 25, by our arithmetic.
As we read the Euronews and Agence Europe reports, the open question for the EU side is definition: which technologies count as sensitive, and what the word superintelligence means in an EU legal text.
Draft San Francisco Declaration, as quoted by Euronews, 12 November 2026
“durable economic security among trusted partners rests not on professions of friendship alone, but on the vigilant protection of the foundations on which our economies depend and on the active promotion of shared innovation and technological leadership.”
Three Implications
FOR CHIP AND MINERALS SUPPLY CHAINS The report lists semiconductors, critical minerals and energy infrastructure as the supply chains Pax Silica covers, and says the declaration calls for working groups on AI supply-chain vulnerabilities and economic hubs to attract investment.
FOR THE EU Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Commission are expected to sign next week, the report says; Euronews reported member states sought objective criteria for sensitive technologies.
The framework says: “It’s a fundamental constraint on the speed of AI transformation, and it’s creating geopolitical leverage that operates independently of who has the best models.”
As we read it, the declaration is an attempt by governments to coordinate on that leverage: a joint list of the technologies and supply chains to protect, from chips to critical minerals and energy. The framework predates the declaration and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
The full signed text has not been published by the State Department; its Pax Silica page, read at about 19:05 UTC on 15 November, still showed only the December 2025 declaration and 25 signatories. The report says the signers include the countries named, so the list may not be complete. The reports we read do not say whether the declaration is legally binding, and Agence Europe describes it as an addendum to the Pax Silica declaration.
We did not read the FT article itself, which is behind a paywall; its content here comes from the Newsmax account of it. Taiwan, which the State Department lists as a non-signatory participant that endorsed the Pax Silica principles, is not mentioned in the report.
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The FT names eight partners alongside the US as signers of the San Francisco Declaration, 8 of Pax Silica’s 25 listed signatories, by our arithmetic, with four more expected next week. It commits them to a joint list of critical AI technologies and supply chains to protect, three days before the APEC leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen.
A note on sourcing. The signing, the names of the signers and the declaration’s contents are from the Financial Times report of 15 November, which we read as relayed by Newsmax; the FT article itself is paywalled and was not read. The draft text quoted is from Euronews (12 November), and the EU position from Euronews and Agence Europe (13 November). The list of 25 Pax Silica signatories is the State Department’s, read at about 19:05 UTC on 15 November; the founding signatories are from the Australian Department of Industry’s record of the 12 December 2025 signing; the APEC dates are from a Shenzhen district government.
The shares and counts are our arithmetic. The X post embedded is Polymarket’s and is used only as the lead. The State Department was not contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
