Tech Diplomacy Now: White House Releases AI Action Plan
The plan aims to boost AI exports, accelerate data center expansion, cut red tape, and require government-contracted AI models to uphold free speech.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tech Diplomacy Updates
Top News of the Week
Latest News
Technology Strategy and Policy
Artificial Intelligence
Telecommunications Networks and Infrastructure
Critical Minerals
Synthetic Biology
Quantum
Advanced Aerospace Technology
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
Energy and Climate
Opinion and Commentary
The Last Word
Krach Institute Convenes Capitol Hill Forum on Semiconductor Future
On July 21, the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, in partnership with MediaTek, convened officials from the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Commerce, leaders from both chambers of Congress, and semiconductor industry giants for a strategic dialogue on strengthening U.S. and allied trusted tech leadership in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other critical and emerging technologies.
The event featured remarks by Rep. John Moolenaar and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Purdue President Dr. Mung Chiang, and included two panel discussions. One panel focused on strengthening U.S. semiconductor capabilities, with leaders from Intel, IBM, NVIDIA, and SEMI, and the other on building U.S. and allied resilience, with experts from MediaTek, ASML, SK Group, and Tokyo Electron. Discussions highlighted public-private partnerships, global collaboration, and workforce development.
Chairman Moolenaar Delivers Krach Institute Address on China Tech Competition – House Select Committee on the CCP, July 22, 2025
Michelle Giuda on Bloomberg TV: Tariffs are a Tool to Rebalance U.S. Trade Relations
In her conversation with Bloomberg anchor Caroline Hyde, Krach Institute CEO Michelle Guida explained why the U.S. must rebalance trade – not as an end in itself, but as a means to rebuild the critical industries and trusted technologies that will secure American leadership and define the future of the free world. On the challenge of filling the talent pipeline, Giuda said Purdue is doing its part, graduating more engineers than any other top university in the country, adding: “We need to incentivize the economic landscape and the trade landscape to help them flourish.”
Top News of the Week - The Trump Administration Unveils a New AI Policy
The Trump Administration released America’s AI Action Plan to ensure U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. The plan aims to boost AI exports, accelerate data center expansion, cut red tape, and require government-contracted AI models to uphold free speech.
Key points:
On Wednesday, President Trump announced a bold program of accelerating AI development and implementation across the U.S. economy and national security space.
The AI Action Plan was issued in accordance with President Trump’s January executive order on Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI.
The plan's three pillars: 1) Accelerating Innovation; 2) Building American AI Infrastructure; and 3) Leading in International Diplomacy and Security.
The policy priorities include expanding global AI exports, fast-tracking data center and chip fab development, cutting federal regulations to spur innovation, and requiring government AI contractors to ensure model neutrality and free speech protections.
The plan prioritizes open-source models in an attempt to prevent China from dominating that category.
More on Background:
White House Unveils America’s AI Action Plan – White House, July 23, 2025
Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan – White House, July 23, 2025
Trump administration to supercharge AI sales to allies, loosen environmental rules – Reuters, July 23, 2025
Trump on AI: "Whatever it takes" to lead the world – Axios, July 23, 2025
The White House's plan for open models & AI research in the U.S. – Nathan Lambert, Interconnects, July 23, 2025
DIVE DEEPER: Visit the Tech Diplomacy Academy to understand the fundamentals of AI and the ethical and policy concerns surrounding this technology.
Latest News
China Slaps Export Curbs on EV Battery Technology – WSJ, July 15, 2025
Spain awards Huawei contracts to manage intelligence agency wiretaps – The Record, July 11, 2025
Russia allegedly field-testing deadly next-gen AI drone powered by Nvidia Jetson Orin — Ukrainian military official says Shahed MS001 is a 'digital predator' that identifies targets on its own – Tom’s Hardware, July 7, 2025
U.S. Fines Semiconductor Firm $4.25 Million for Illegal Huawei Shipments – Caixin Global, July 5, 2025
Technology Strategy and Policy
Zuckerberg Says Meta Will Build Gigawatt-Size Data Centers – Bloomberg, July 14, 2025
China's Hesai appeals US court ruling supporting blacklist inclusion – Nikkei Asia, July 14, 2025
China's Hesai loses lawsuit against US government for blacklisting – Reuters, July 11, 2025
VIDEO – National Security vs. Economic Gain: A Debate on US-China Export Policy – AEI, July 10, 2025
EU Rolls Out AI Code with Broad Copyright, Transparency Rules – Bloomberg, July 10, 2025
Full Stack: China's Evolving Industrial Policy for AI – RAND, June 26, 2025
Vietnam’s Digital Tax Policy – ITIF, June 9, 2025
Artificial Intelligence
Meta’s New Superintelligence Lab Is Discussing Major A.I. Strategy Changes – NYTs, July 14, 2025
Malaysia to Require Permits on Trade of High-End US AI Chips – Bloomberg, July 14, 2025
Startup Behind Manus AI Agent Shuts Down China Team – The Information, July 11, 2025
OpenAI Challenger Zhipu Said to Weigh Shifting IPO to Hong Kong – Bloomberg, July 11, 2025
The Coder ‘Village’ at the Heart of China’s A.I. Frenzy – NYTs, July 6, 2025
Regulating Artificial Intelligence: U.S. and International Approaches and Considerations for Congress – Congressional Research Service, June 4, 2025
Defense Officials Outline AI's Strategic Role in National Security – DoD, April 24, 2025
Telecommunications Networks and Infrastructure
TikTok’s messy merger in Indonesia could be a preview of what’s to come in the U.S. – Rest of the World, July 14, 2025
TikTok Denies Report of Separate U.S. App That Could Pave Way for Sale – Caixin Global, July 14, 2025
Chinese Surveillance-Gear Maker Fights Canadian Ban – Caixin Global, July 8, 2025
TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected U.S. Sale – The Information, July 6, 2025
Trump Says He Will Start Talks with China on TikTok Deal – NYTs, July 5, 2025
US judge says China’s Huawei Technologies must face criminal case for racketeering and other charges – AP, July 2, 2025
Critical Minerals
America’s Biggest Rare-Earth Producer Makes a Play to End China’s Dominance – WSJ, July 15, 2025
MP Materials lands multi-billion Pentagon deal – Minning, July 10, 2025
Saskatchewan Research Council Scales Back Output Due to Construction Delays – Bloomberg, July 9, 2025
How US buyers of critical minerals bypass China's export ban – Reuters, July 9, 2025
Europe Needs Rare Earth Metals. Can a Factory in Seaside France Supply Them? – NYTs, July 8, 2025
China snaps up mines around the world in rush to secure resources – FT, July 7, 2025
China’s weaponisation of rare earths is a new kind of trade war – FT, July 7, 2025
China's rare earth export controls are good for Beijing, bad for business – Reuters, July 7, 2025
Mining boss calls for price support to challenge China’s critical minerals dominance – FT, July 6, 2025
China’s Rare Earth Origin Story, Explained – NYTs, July 5, 2025
China Has Paid a High Price for Its Dominance in Rare Earths – NYTs, July 5, 2025
How Rare Earths Became China’s Top Trade Weapon – Foreign Policy, July 1, 2025
Synthetic Biology
Chinese biotech shares surge as Big Pharma looks to license cancer treatments – FT, July 14, 2025
China Biotech’s Stunning Advance Is Changing the World’s Drug Pipeline – Bloomberg, July 13, 2025
Cyborg bees to be Chinese military scouts – The Telegraph, July 10, 2025
Quantum
Quantum-enhanced supercomputers are starting to do chemistry – New Scientist, July 4, 2025
“They Just Broke Physics”: Scientists Unveil Quantum Leap That Could Make Silicon Obsolete With 1,000× Faster Electronics – Sustainability Times, July 4, 2025
Singapore’s National Quantum Strategy Turns One – RSIS, June 30, 2025
Doha’s Quantum Threat – Tablet Magazine, June 30, 2025
Advanced Aerospace Technology
China jumps ahead in the race to achieve a new kind of reuse in space – Ars Technica, July 8, 2025
China is making rapid space tech gains. Here’s how the military could use them – SCMP, July 7, 2025
Trump wants to ground China’s drones – but have they flown too high to reach? – SCMP, July 6, 2025
China’s Mysterious Ekranoplan Seen in Full for First Time – TWZ, July 5, 2025
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
China gives conditional nod to Synopsys-Ansys deal, removing last major hurdle – Reuters, July 14, 2025
Malaysia Controls AI Chip Exports as US Targets China Smuggling – Bloomberg, July 14, 2025
China Lags in Chip Lithography, Influential DC Think Tank Says – Bloomberg, July 14, 2025
US Plans AI Chip Curbs on Malaysia, Thailand Over China Concerns – Bloomberg, July 4, 2025
Chipmakers get larger tax credits in Trump’s latest ‘big beautiful bill’ – CNBC, July 2, 2025
Energy and Climate
China is building 74% of all current solar and wind projects, report says – FT, July 9, 2025
Trump’s Megabill Gives Chinese EV Makers a Leg Up, Says Head of Auto Group – WSJ, July 8, 2025
Dangerous mines: A death at the bottom of the EV supply chain – Rest of the World, July 8, 2025
China eyes steps to ease solar panel industry price war – Nikkei Asia, July 8, 2025
Elon Musk Is Running Out of Road in China – WSJ, July 6, 2025
Nissan to start shipping EVs from China in 2026 – Nikkei Asia, July 4, 2025
World’s first nuclear reactor producing 200 tons of hydrogen daily launched in US – Interesting Engineering, July 2, 2025
Opinion and Commentary
The coming rare earths war – Helen Thompson, Unherd, July 14, 2025
A band of innovators reimagines the spy game for a world with no cover – David Ignatius, WaPo, July 10, 2025
US Antitrust as an Anti-Competitiveness Weapon – Rob Atkinson, ITIF, July 8, 2025
The AI backlash scares the hell out of me: Why do we always snuff out progress just as it gets going? – Danny Crichton, Riskgaming, July 8, 2025
A Fossil-Fuel Boom in the Americas – Walter Russell Mead, WSJ, July 7, 2025
Beijing wants America to depend on China. Here’s how to fight back. – Rahm Emanuel, WaPo, July 6, 2025
Humanoid Robots Need to Avoid Chinese Domination – Thomas Black, Bloomberg, June 30, 2025
The Last Word
“From this day forward it’ll be a policy of the United States to do whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence.”
– President Trump at the unveiling of America’s AI Action Plan
About: Tech Diplomacy Now
The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue is the world’s preeminent trusted technology accelerator. As the leader of the new category of Tech Diplomacy, the Institute integrates technology expertise, Silicon Valley strategies, and foreign policy tools to build the Global Trusted Tech Network of governments, companies, organizations and individuals to accelerate the innovation and adoption of trusted technology and ensure technology advances freedom.