World leaders want American AI. They just don’t want America to be able to turn it off.

The geopolitical risk of AI dependency landed on the table at the G7 summit. French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that the United States could unilaterally revoke access to American AI systems, leaving other nations stranded. That theoretical threat became concrete when Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, experienced a blackout that disrupted service globally.

The concern reflects a deeper anxiety among world leaders. The U.S. dominates AI infrastructure and frontier models. Nations relying on these systems have no contractual guarantees against sudden access cuts. A geopolitical spat, sanctions regime, or executive decision could sever AI capabilities that have become embedded in critical sectors from healthcare to finance to defense.

Macron and Modi pushed for greater autonomy. European and Indian officials want indigenous AI capacity, not reliance on American companies. France has invested in its own models. India eyes domestic AI development to reduce dependency. Both leaders recognize that being locked out of U.S. AI would cripple their tech ecosystems and competitive positioning.

The Anthropic incident validated their fears instantly. Service interruptions expose the brittleness of outsourced AI infrastructure. When a single company stumbles, entire nations lose access. Add geopolitical friction to equipment failures, and the vulnerability multiplies.

This mirrors historical patterns with other critical technologies. Chip exports to China. Telegram sanctions. Cloud service blackouts during disputes. Nations now treat AI as infrastructure, not luxury. They want guarantees.

The U.S. currently holds structural advantages. American companies built the best models first. Compute capacity concentrates in the U.S. Talent flows toward Silicon Valley. But geopolitical AI independence is now a stated priority for multiple major economies. Investment follows.

The result shapes the next phase of AI competition. Not just innovation races, but supply chain resilience and strategic