Xi offers BRICS an open-source AI community China would lead
Speaking on the second day of the New Delhi summit, Xi listed five technology initiatives. The joint declaration did not adopt the AI community by name.
New Delhi3 min read
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Xi Jinping told the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi on Sunday that China would take the lead in building an open-source artificial intelligence community for the group. He said the project would support joint work on large language models, run training courses, and build what he called an open ecosystem for AI.
The offer sat inside a five-point package. The other four items were trade and investment facilitation, a digital industry cloud platform, an intelligent manufacturing drive that would help members build smart factories, and a science and talent programme. Xi also invited BRICS governments to join the World AI Cooperation Organization, a body Beijing launched in July with 29 founding signatories.
CCTV carried the readout. Xi said Global South countries should work faster toward a consensus-based global AI governance framework. He told the room the international order was volatile and that BRICS should keep it free from double standards.
What the declaration actually said
The group's joint statement, issued on Saturday, did not name a China-led open-source community. It called for international cooperation that would improve access to AI resources while keeping the technology safe, secure, inclusive and reliable. That is a different sentence. It leaves room for India's own AI stack, for the UAE's investments, and for members that buy American chips.
Narendra Modi, hosting the summit, warned on Sunday against the weaponisation of technology and critical minerals. He said both could become a hurdle to shared progress and that BRICS had stressed inclusivity in technology adoption. The two speeches sat on the same agenda and pulled in different directions. Xi offered Chinese models and factories. Modi warned against turning those inputs into tools of pressure.
BRICS now has 11 members. China takes the chair next year and will host the 2027 summit. That calendar gives Beijing a year to turn Sunday's list into working groups, standards drafts and training seats. It does not force New Delhi, Brasilia or Abu Dhabi to standardise on Chinese weights.
Why open source is the pitch
Chinese firms have released model weights that other countries can fine-tune. American labs have mostly kept the largest systems closed. Xi's sentence exploits that split. For governments that cannot buy the newest Nvidia cluster, an open model with Chinese documentation is a usable product. For Washington, the same product is a channel for Chinese standards.
Xi is due in the United States later this month to meet Donald Trump. AI governance is expected on that list. Trump said this week that whoever wins AI wins, and that he would not slow American labs. Dario Amodei of Anthropic has been arguing the opposite. King Charles has called lab chiefs to Dumfries House. The BRICS offer is Beijing's entry in the same week of argument.
India has its own compute plans and its own caution about Chinese apps. The UAE has poured money into American and Chinese labs at once. Russia wants any forum that reduces the effect of Western export controls. Those interests do not automatically add up to a single community with China as pioneer.
What to watch next
Three documents will show whether Sunday was a speech or a programme. First, whether the World AI Cooperation Organization publishes a BRICS annex. Second, whether a training calendar appears with named institutes and seats. Third, whether the 2027 chair's draft declaration uses Xi's phrasing or Modi's.
Until then the usable fact is narrower. China put an open-source AI community on the BRICS table in New Delhi. The table did not put that community into the communique. The gap between those two sentences is the story the next chair will have to close or leave open.
