Public Options
The Global Rise of Public AI
05. 06. 2025
Nations are building public AI infrastructure in varied ways, shaping global AI competition beyond just a U.S.-China tech race.
The global competition over artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn significant attention, especially the rivalry between China and the United States, with implications for military strength, economic development, and global influence. But less examined is the rise of “public AI”—government-led efforts to build AI infrastructure, such as cloud computing, large datasets, and foundational models. This trend marks a departure from decades of neoliberal policymaking, as governments increasingly intervene to shape the AI sector in line with national goals. Importantly, countries are not following a single path: their approaches vary based on political, economic, and strategic considerations. This paper explores how nine governments—the UK, India, UAE, Japan, Canada, the EU, Singapore, China, and the U.S.—are pursuing public AI using four models: Outsourced Provision, Networked Collaboration, State-Corporate Fusion, and Public Options. Each comes with tradeoffs related to state capacity, corporate dependency, competition, national security, and equity. The shape of global AI will hinge in part on how these choices play out.
This paper emerged from a conference co-hosted by the Economic Security Project (ESP), Mozilla Foundation, and VPA, with generous support from the Rockefeller Foundation. Thanks to Becky Chao, Diane Coyle, Amba Kak, Josh Mendelsohn, Teri Olle, Alex Pascal, Asad Ramzanali, Brian Shearer, Bruce Schneier, Alejandro Suarez, Josh Tan, Robert Underwood, Jai Vipra, Charles Yang, and all conference participants for their insights and contributions.
Ganesh Sitaraman holds the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law at Vanderbilt University and is the director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator. He is the author or co-author of six books, including Networks, Platforms, and Utilities: Law and Policy.
Karun Parek is a policy analyst at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.