White House AI Director Michael Kratsios unveiled America’s aggressive push to export artificial intelligence technology to Asia-Pacific allies during a speech on Tuesday in South Korea.
Speaking at the APEC Digital and AI Ministerial Meeting in Incheon, a city located in northwestern South Korea, Kratsios outlined the new American AI Exports Program. The program will package complete AI technology stacks for allied nations.
“Our hope is that AI will be a powerful tool for bilateral diplomacy,” Kratsios said. “We believe that by packaging the American AI stack and making it available to you, we can strengthen our friendships, empower each of our nations’ AI innovation, and secure a peaceful future of shared prosperity.”
The export packages will include AI chips, data centers, cloud services, and specialized applications. Federal financing tools, such as loans and guarantees, will support priority deals.
Kratsios compared the current AI competition to the Space Race of the 1960s. He cited White House AI Czar David Sacks, who called President Trump’s recent AI Action Plan speech the most significant technology address since Kennedy’s announcement of the moon landing.
“We meet in a time much like the one President Kennedy described in 1962, ‘in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance,'” Kratsios said.
The director emphasized America’s current technological edge. He argued that competitors remain dependent on U.S. innovations and models.
“American companies and American ideas still lead the way,” he stated.
The administration promises to support both proprietary and open-source AI development.
Kratsios delivered a blunt warning to APEC members about their technology choices. He contrasted American dynamism with what he called European stagnation. “You can follow the European model of fear and overregulation, and be inevitably left behind,” he said, “or you can take our offered handshake and make a deal.”
The Trump administration has moved swiftly on AI policy since announcing its Action Plan on July 23. Executive orders have addressed biased AI procurement, data center construction, and technology exports.
Kratsios positioned the export program as advancing mutual prosperity while maintaining U.S. leadership. He promised AI packages would respect customer nations’ sovereignty and data privacy needs.
“Thanks to President Trump, American AI is open for business,” he declared. “We are ready to make deals under the dealmaker in chief.”