Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Sunday (13), at the closing of the annual BRICS summit in New Delhi, that China will lead the creation of an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) system for the joint use and development of the bloc's countries. According to CNN Brasil, nearly the whole speech by the Chinese leader was devoted to technological development, a clear sign that the issue will dominate the group's rotating presidency, which China takes over in 2027.
The pledge, made on the second and final day of the meeting, targets every country in the group, partners included, Xi said in remarks quoted by CNN Brasil:
"Create a BRICS open-source AI community, support cooperation in the development and application of large language models, hold specialized seminars and AI training courses, and build an open ecosystem for AI."
The Reuters news agency, in a report carried by Agência Brasil, recorded the same commitment as a "BRICS AI Open-Source Zone," focused on cooperation in large language models, training and an open AI ecosystem. The announcement lands at the height of the race between Beijing and Washington for AI leadership, with distinct approaches on each side. The two governments have already taken steps to limit technology transfers between them, and China holds a near monopoly on the critical minerals used in cutting-edge technology.
For Brazil, one of the five founding members of BRICS alongside Russia, India, China and South Africa, the offer sketches a path of its own in a field split between the two biggest technology powers. Xi promised technology exchange, industrial alignment, a cloud platform for the bloc's digital ecosystem and the AI training courses. For now, the pledge has no timeline and no named products: neither report cites dates, budgets or specific models.
The map of interests
The New Delhi summit exposed different priorities inside the group. India, the host and holder of the rotating presidency in 2026, argued that solutions created within BRICS should serve the whole Global South, not only its members: Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized, without naming any country, nations that try to turn technology and critical minerals into commercial and diplomatic weapons, which he said could end the progress and prosperity of other states. Russia called for deeper integration and a reform of global governance, a position CNN Brasil links to the Western sanctions imposed on the Kremlin; President Vladimir Putin called BRICS a driving force for a fairer, multipolar world order.
China, which takes over the presidency in 2027, put practical cooperation at the center of the agenda. Beyond AI, Xi proposed a partnership on Special Economic Zones among the group's countries, said China will host a BRICS Services Trade Forum next year and called for stability in industrial and supply chains, along with the building of an integrated market, according to Reuters.
An expanded bloc
BRICS is no longer the club of five emerging economies from two decades ago, created to push back against a world order dominated by the United States. Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates have joined, and ten partner countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, among them Cuba, Malaysia and Thailand, took part in the discussions in the Indian capital. On Saturday (12), the summit reached a consensus on a joint declaration expressing deep concern over the escalation in the Middle East and calling for maximum restraint.