By Marc Seal
In the last decade, the United States learned a painful lesson. Despite inventing the underlying technologies, America lost the global equipment race for 5G. Huawei’s equipment, alongside equipment from Ericsson and Nokia, serves as the backbone of much of the world’s 5G telecommunications infrastructure. China’s dominance didn’t happen because its technology was inherently superior. It happened because America underestimated the strategic nature of the race. We cannot afford to repeat this mistake for 6G.
At the recent APEC Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s proposed creating a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, a new governing body, based in Shanghai, to regulate AI development. Beijing’s proposal is an unmistakable bid to influence the global AI framework in line with its political and economic priorities. The United States cannot allow that to happen.
AI is not simply another technology. It is the foundation of a new computing platform as consequential as the internet or electricity. Nations are building what many are now calling “AI factories,” supercomputing data centers that convert raw data into digital intelligence. These factories are quickly becoming critical infrastructure, akin to power plants or telecom networks. The country whose technology stack is deployed across these factories will set the rules, shape the standards, and capture the value of the next industrial revolution.
When 5G standards were being set, the U.S. government and industry treated them as technical debates, not geopolitical ones. Policymakers assumed market forces alone would secure American leadership. Meanwhile, Huawei, heavily backed by Beijing, offered turnkey networks at subsidized prices.
Europe and much of the developing world adopted Huawei equipment not because it was better, but because it was affordable, available, and packaged as a complete system. The U.S. response, in the form of late restrictions and export controls, arrived only after Huawei had already entrenched itself globally. By then, America’s warnings about security risks sounded like sour grapes. Huawei now has a major role in shaping the world’s telecom standards, reaping enormous licensing revenues, and enjoys global influence over a technology critical to national security. As the world transitions to 6G, Huawei is aggressively pushing for a revolutionary, AI-native approach to 6G, while others, like Nokia and Ericsson, are taking a more evolutionary path.
As 6G infrastructure begins to develop, U.S. companies are showing they’ve learned from past mistakes. The recent NVIDIA–Nokia partnership to integrate AI computing with next-generation networks exemplifies how U.S. technology leaders can pair advanced chips with telecommunications infrastructure to compete more effectively against China’s state-subsidized model. This collaboration demonstrates how a U.S.-led 6G ecosystem can scale globally, keeping America and its allies at the forefront of AI innovation.
Already, countries from Saudi Arabia to Singapore are building sovereign AI clouds using American technology. But China is not standing still. Huawei has announced AI-powered supercomputers and is explicitly fusing AI with its telecom dominance. The parallel to the 5G era should alarm policymakers: if U.S. allies and emerging markets turn to Chinese AI systems because they are cheaper and bundled, America could lose the global platform battle once again.
Winning the AI race requires a clear and focused strategy. America must ensure that the U.S. technology stack is deployed globally. This is not simply a question of innovation but of strategic influence. To lead in AI, the United States must extend its technological footprint beyond domestic borders and strengthen the foundations of its AI ecosystem at home.
In order to do so, Washington must support U.S. AI exports. Rather than restricting diffusion, policymakers should encourage allies and partners to adopt American AI infrastructure. Doing so will both expand the market for American companies and align global AI development with democratic values and governance norms. Many countries are seeking to develop AI systems trained on their own data and languages, reflecting their national priorities. The United States should make it easy for them to build these sovereign AI clouds using American technology as the foundation.
It would be a mistake to restrict American firms’ ability to export to fast-growing markets. As NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has warned, overbroad export controls have already cost U.S. companies share in China, without slowing Chinese progress. Limiting American AI diffusion risks repeating the 5G playbook, where allies turned to Huawei not out of preference, but because it was the only option on the table.
America must also continue to invest in scale at home. Sustaining AI leadership depends on maintaining the world’s largest and most advanced AI factories. To continue innovating, government investment and policy support are essential, particularly in areas like energy infrastructure, environmental permitting, and supply chain resilience for advanced components.
History will not be kind if America invents AI only to let others control its deployment. Policymakers must act now to ensure the American technology stack becomes the world’s default. If we fail, the world’s AI factories, the power plants of intelligence, will run on Chinese technology. The U.S. will once again be resigned to warning about security risks, while our competitors set the standards and reap the rewards. This is a race America cannot afford to lose again.
Marc Seal is the CEO of an AI company. Members of the editorial and news staff of the Daily Caller were not involved in the creation of this content.
