Top U.S. lawmakers and experts emphasize India’s crucial role as a strategic ally in the global race for artificial intelligence amid rising competition with China.
WASHINGTON, DC – India’s significance as a vital technology and strategic partner has been underscored this week as leading U.S. lawmakers and experts caution that the global race for artificial intelligence (AI) is reaching a critical juncture. This phase is characterized by China’s swift military and industrial adoption of AI, alongside tightening U.S.-led semiconductor controls aimed at preserving technological superiority.
During a Senate hearing on December 2, witnesses highlighted the necessity for enhanced coordination among democratic allies, including India, to establish global AI standards, secure chip supply chains, and counter Beijing’s ambitions.
The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy convened the session to evaluate the geopolitical risks stemming from China’s rapid AI advancements. While much of the dialogue centered on export controls and military implications, India emerged early as a pivotal player in the evolving governance framework.
Tarun Chhabra, a former White House national security official now affiliated with Anthropic, drew a direct connection to India. He argued that developing trusted AI frameworks necessitates close collaboration with like-minded democracies. Chhabra stated, “The closest thing we have right now is the AI summits that are happening,” and noted, “There’s one coming up in India, and that’s an opportunity for us to build the kind of trusted AI framework that I mentioned earlier.” India is set to host a significant AI summit in February 2026.
Chhabra emphasized that leadership in AI will significantly influence economic prosperity and national security, describing the next two to three years as a “critical window” for both frontier AI development and global AI dissemination. He cautioned that China would struggle to produce competitive AI chips unless the U.S. squanders its advantage, urging stricter controls to prevent “CCP-controlled companies” from filling their data centers with American technology.
Senators Pete Ricketts and Chris Coons framed the AI race in terms that resonate with India’s strategic considerations. Ricketts likened the challenge to the ‘Sputnik’ moment and the Cold War-era space race, asserting that the U.S. now faces “a similar contest, this time with Communist China and even higher stakes.” He remarked that AI will transform daily life, with its military applications poised to reshape the global balance of power. “Beijing is racing to fuse civilian AI with its military to seize the next revolution in military affairs. However, unlike the moon landing, the finish line in the AI race is far less clear,” he stated.
Coons echoed the sentiment, asserting that American and allied leadership in AI is crucial to ensure that global adoption relies on “our chips, our cloud infrastructure, and our models.” He highlighted that China has “poured money into research, development, deployment,” and pointed out Beijing’s ambition to become the world’s leading AI power by 2030. He insisted that maintaining AI primacy must be “a central national imperative,” linking it directly to the broader geostrategic landscape.
Experts expressed concerns about the rapid advancement of China’s military integration of AI. Chris Miller from the American Enterprise Institute noted that both Russia and Ukraine are already utilizing AI to “sift through intelligence data and identify what signal is and what is noise,” arguing that these technologies are becoming essential for defense planning. He maintained that U.S. leadership in computing power remains significant, but the country must sustain its edge in “electrical power,” “computing power,” and “brain power”—the three critical components for enduring AI dominance.
Gregory Allen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warned that AI is following a trajectory akin to the early years of computing, evolving into a foundational technology across military, intelligence, and economic sectors. He stated, “The idea that the United States can lose its advantage in AI and maintain its advantage in military power is simply nonsensical.” Allen praised U.S. chip export controls as the most consequential action taken in recent years, arguing that without them, “the largest data centers today would already be in China.” He also opposed granting Chinese companies remote access to U.S. cloud computing, asserting that such access would enable them to “build their own platforms” before ultimately sidelining American firms.
James Mulvenon, a prominent expert on the Chinese military, warned that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is integrating large language models “at every level of its system,” constructing an AI-driven decision architecture it deems “superior to human cognition.” He expressed confidence that Beijing could acquire Western chips through “smuggling and a planetary scale level of technology espionage.”
All four witnesses rejected any proposals to export NVIDIA’s advanced H-200 or Blackwell chips to China. Allen cautioned that Blackwell chips “do what Chinese chips can’t” and warned that selling them would provide Beijing with “a bridge to the future” that it currently cannot construct. This discussion underscores the urgency of maintaining a competitive edge in the AI landscape, particularly as global dynamics continue to shift.
According to IANS, the implications of these discussions highlight the importance of India’s role in the evolving global AI framework.