During the week of the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China announced the creation of the World AI Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) — a new international AI cooperation and governance alliance with 29 founding countries. Brazil is on the list, alongside Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, Pakistan, and others. The United States is not a member.
What Changed
According to reporting from Al Jazeera, TechTimes, and Computerworld, the 29 countries signed WAICO's founding agreement during the Shanghai event, which also drew UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The organization describes itself as a space for cooperation on AI standards and regulation among member countries — running parallel to, not alongside, Western forums like the AI Safety Summit or the OECD.
Why It Matters
The world is splitting into AI governance blocs, each with its own technical standards, compliance requirements, and regulatory priorities. Companies that operate or buy technology internationally will need to navigate between these blocs — a certification or audit that satisfies one standard may not automatically hold in another.
The Impact for Brazil
Brazil's entry as a WAICO founding member is a meaningful strategic signal, regardless of any immediate binding commitment: the country is building a formal relationship with the China-led bloc in parallel to PL 2338, its domestic bill, which tracks more closely with European risk-based regulatory principles. For Brazilian companies, this reinforces that AI strategy can't be thought of purely in terms of which model to use — supply chain, data, and future certification will carry a geopolitical dimension too.
Entercast's Take
It's still early to know what concrete obligations WAICO will generate — the agreement reads more as an intent to cooperate than a specific rulebook. But the practical lesson already applies: companies that depend on AI vendors from a single geopolitical bloc are more exposed to regulatory shifts outside their control. Vendor diversification and an architecture that doesn't lock the company into one technology stack stop being just good engineering practice — they become strategic protection.