The United States plans to send letters to 35 countries that signed the June Joint Statement on the Partnership for Artificial Intelligence Opportunities, urging them to choose carefully between Washington and Beijing in artificial intelligence. Reuters reported the draft warns that joining a China-led AI framework could jeopardize participation in U.S.-led initiatives such as the AI Alliance, and that participants in Pax Silica, including South Korea, are also in scope. In Seoul, officials and industry participants are assessing whether that pressure could spread from AI cooperation into semiconductor trade and new U.S.-based memory-chip investment, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in focus. Analysts differ on how far Washington will push, while South Korea is trying to protect tariff terms and its domestic chip base amid deep export and materials exposure to China.