Africa's Absence From US AI Supply-Chain Pact Raises Geopolitical Stakes for the Continent
New analysis highlights that Africa is entirely absent from the US AI supply-chain agreement, with South Africa's posture of AI neutrality not yet formally tested by the arrangement. The exclusion is presented as a material geopolitical signal for African technology decision-makers navigating competing US and Chinese AI ecosystems.
Pax Silica: Africa mines the minerals but won't help set the rules
South Africa produces roughly 70% of the world's platinum and 38% of its manganese — two materials central to the infrastructure powering the global AI build-out. Not one African country has signed the US agreement designed to govern exactly where the investment, licensing and purchasing tied to those minerals will flow.
That's the uncomfortable geometry. The continent supplies the inputs; others are writing the terms.
Pretoria's position is that neutrality keeps every door open. The counter-argument, embedded in the pact's own language, is blunter: 'to be part of everything is to be part of nothing.' Staying outside an arrangement that controls offtake and chip-access deals isn't neutrality — it's absence with a polite name.
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- South Africa’s AI neutrality has not yet been tested · techcentral.co.za · T2