China Formalizes WAICO in Shanghai With Brazil Among Founding Members
On July 16, 2026, 29 countries, including Brazil, signed WAICO's founding charter in Shanghai, a new China-led intergovernmental body for global AI governance headquartered in the city.
What Happened in Shanghai
On July 16, 2026, representatives from 29 countries gathered in Shanghai to sign the founding charter of WAICO, the World AI Cooperation Organization. According to Xinhua and CGTN, the founding group spans Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, including China, Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Laos, Pakistan, Indonesia and Brazil. Brazil's place among the founders was independently reported by Nigeria's The Sun, citing wire agencies, and by Brasil247 in Brazil, based on a Global Times dispatch. The signing ceremony formally opened the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), running in Shanghai through July 20. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi signed on Beijing's behalf, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the ceremony.
Xi Jinping's Speech and China's Pledges
WAICO's creation was announced during Xi Jinping's opening address at WAIC, titled 'Joining Hands to Build a Just and Equitable System for Global AI Governance.' It was the first time since the conference began in 2018 that China's president has personally addressed the event, as Bloomberg noted in a July 13 report. In the speech, Xi said China will offer developing countries 5,000 training slots and AI seminar spots over the next five years, and will build international AI application cooperation centers with ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union and other regional bodies. Beijing also pledged to open its AI-powered weather warning system, MAZU, to 30 countries. Headquartered in Shanghai, WAICO launches as an independent intergovernmental organization whose stated goal, per an official text carried by Xinhua, is to 'promote international cooperation and global governance of AI' through 'extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit' and a 'people-centered approach,' in line with the principles of the UN Charter.
A Counterweight to the Western Regulatory Vacuum
Bloomberg framed Xi's WAIC debut as a calculated move amid intensifying US-China tech rivalry. While Washington still debates internally which federal agency should regulate agentic AI systems, WAICO positions itself as China's institutional pillar for filling that gap on a multilateral scale. Al Jazeera and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (mfa.gov.cn) framed the new body as an alternative to Western AI governance forums, offering developing nations a formal channel for cooperation, capacity building and technology access under Chinese leadership, something with no direct US-led or EU-led equivalent today.
What It Means for Brazilian Agencies and SMEs
For Brazil's marketing automation and customer service ecosystem, Brazil's presence among WAICO's founders carries practical weight. It places the country at the table where technical standards, safety protocols and AI interoperability rules could be discussed in coming years, with potential to shape easier access to models, data and government-to-government partnerships with China, one of the world's largest AI development hubs. Agencies and SMEs that today rely almost exclusively on American language model vendors could, over the medium term, gain alternative channels for technical cooperation and training through programs such as the 5,000 training slots Xi announced. At the same time, membership also exposes Brazil to a governance arrangement whose rules are still being written by a Beijing-led bloc, something that warrants close monitoring by companies that depend on international regulatory compliance.
What Is Clear After Shanghai
WAICO consolidates in a single act what China had been building in rhetoric for years: the proposal that AI governance should not be dictated unilaterally by Washington or Silicon Valley. With 29 founders, a Shanghai headquarters and Brazil on the original list, the organization is smaller in combined economic weight than the United States alone, yet larger in the number of countries willing to test an alternative cooperation model. In the coming months, the real test will be whether WAICO becomes an actual decision-making body with power to set technical standards, or remains a low-impact diplomatic forum.