{"id":122243,"date":"2026-07-29T02:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/122243\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T02:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:11:08","slug":"ai-competition-heats-up-as-us-targets-southeast-asias-public-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/122243\/","title":{"rendered":"AI competition heats up as US targets Southeast Asia\u2019s public sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington\u2019s new AI Spark initiative to promote American <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">artificial intelligence<\/a> systems in Southeast Asia\u2019s public services and digital infrastructure is seen as a move to counter the region\u2019s deepening partnerships with Chinese firms in the deployment of the technology.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">However, the initiative is unlikely to force Southeast Asia to choose between AI Spark and the Chinese model, as the region is expected to integrate US know-how with Chinese and local systems to avoid dependence on any single provider, according to analysts.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On July 22, Washington said in a statement that AI Spark would support American AI exports to Southeast Asia as part of an overarching plan to advance \u201ctechnologies of the future\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The announcement came in the middle of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s visit to Manila during a meeting of Asean foreign ministers last week, where he said Washington was delivering US$2.5 billion in strategic investments in the region.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At a virtual press briefing on Friday, US Ambassador Kevin Kim said that while the investments would span various categories, there was an emphasis on advancing technologies in Southeast Asia given its interest in AI, data centres and other areas.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAI Spark \u2026 will provide financial and technical support to Southeast Asian governments interested in deploying the US\u2019 AI stack for public sector applications,\u201d Kim added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington\u2019s new AI Spark initiative to promote American artificial intelligence systems in Southeast Asia\u2019s public services and digital&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,61722,61723,50169,25,1412,387,31510,24254],"class_list":["post-122243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-ai-spark","tag-ai-stack","tag-american-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-asean","tag-china","tag-chinese-ai","tag-hanoi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}