Opinion: Could Mexico make America great again? How the AI race changes the game

As we each effort to fig retired however to usage immoderate mentation of GPT to reply emails, Nano Banana to marque our Google Slides look prettier and Grok to crook photos into videos — oregon reply questionable governmental questions connected X — it’s casual to hide that the AI speech tied to global powerfulness and nationalist security is acold much complex.

Beneath the memes, prompts and productivity hacks lies a superior geopolitical race. And successful that space, the U.S.-Mexico narration whitethorn beryllium 1 of the astir important — and underappreciated — dynamics shaping commercialized and economical argumentation successful the years ahead.

At its core, AI enactment isn’t conscionable astir algorithms. It’s astir hardware, energy, data, talent, resilience and nationalist security.

Models don’t bid themselves successful the unreality — they necessitate monolithic computing power, carnal servers, precocious chips, unafraid proviso chains and uninterrupted infrastructure. In that sense, AI looks a batch much similar manufacturing than software. And that’s wherever North America — and particularly Mexico — enters the picture. The USMCA’s integer commercialized model is becoming a nationalist information tool, not conscionable a commercialized 1 — governing information flows, infrastructure and spot successful ways that straight signifier AI competitiveness (Inter-American Dialogue).

As tensions with China persist and export controls connected precocious chips tighten, the United States faces a elemental challenge: how to standard AI infrastructure fast, securely and adjacent to home. This is simply a contention wherever the integer satellite is moving much rapidly than the carnal one. AI enactment yet rests connected semiconductors, and contiguous astir three-quarters of planetary spot manufacturing capableness remains concentrated successful East Asia, with precocious accumulation highly exposed to geopolitical hazard (US-Mexico Foundation). (No request to revisit what happened during COVID).

One factual example: Mexico is present location to large investments successful AI server and “superchip” assembly. Nvidia’s next-generation GB200 servers are being assembled successful Jalisco done Foxconn, alongside a increasing ecosystem of suppliers relocating from Asia. These facilities aren’t designed for the Mexican marketplace — they’re built to service North American strategical needs. This is nearshoring not arsenic a buzzword, but arsenic an

AI supply-chain strategy

. To recognize wherefore infrastructure determination matters truthful much, it helps to look astatine wherever the carnal backbone of the integer system really lives. AI doesn’t unrecorded successful the unreality — it lives successful information centers. And those information centers are highly concentrated geographically, making location, vigor and connectivity strategical assets.

Hardware, however, is lone fractional the story. AI besides runs connected information centers — tons of them. Mexico is rapidly becoming an hold of the North American integer backbone. Multibillion-dollar investments from Microsoft, AWS and others are turning cities similar Querétaro into captious nodes for unreality and AI workloads. Enabled by USMCA integer commercialized rules, these information centers run wrong compatible regulatory and privateness frameworks, allowing U.S. firms to grow capacity, amended latency and physique redundancy without leaving the region.

CFE opens 269-MW combined rhythm powerfulness works successful Querétaro to boost Bajío grid

This distributed infrastructure matters for resilience. AI systems can’t spend downtime.

In scenarios ranging from cyberattacks to earthy disasters oregon vigor stress, having computing capableness dispersed crossed the continent strengthens continuity. Mexico and Canada aren’t alternatives to the United States — they are fail-safes. And Mexico’s comparative vantage successful this ecosystem isn’t astir replicating precocious spot fabs, but astir strengthening the assembly, testing, packaging and integration layers that marque AI hardware scalable and resilient crossed North America (U.S.-Mexico Foundation). This isn’t happening by accident. Mexico’s adjacent signifier of concern and integer argumentation is explicitly aligned with this opportunity.

Mexico’s concern and integer infrastructure plans — including information centers, energy, and precocious manufacturing — are progressively aligned with North America’s AI and nearshoring strategy.

Then there’s talent. AI enactment yet depends connected people, not conscionable machines. Mexico produces thousands of engineers and machine subject graduates each year, galore already embedded successful North American firms and probe ecosystems. Mexican universities postgraduate implicit 130,000 engineers annually crossed grade levels, on with astir 3,000 master’s graduates successful machine subject oregon related fields — the highest fig successful Latin America. Talent mobility nether the USMCA, combined with shared standards and regulatory coordination, accelerates innovation portion keeping captious capabilities wrong the region.

Seen done this lens, AI becomes a acquainted story. Just similar manufacturing, commercialized and energy, the United States doesn’t request to “do it each alone.” It needs a trusted, integrated determination strategy that lowers risk, increases standard and preserves strategical autonomy. Mexico is not a rival successful the AI contention — it is an enabler.

(Just arsenic a footnote, AI related to carnal information enforcement, arms and imaginable warfare is simply a huuuge topic, of which I’m not susceptible of penning about, but support that successful caput arsenic well.)

AI dominance won’t beryllium decided by who writes the champion prompt. It volition beryllium decided by who controls the full stack: chips, servers, energy, data, endowment and trust. The upcoming 2026 USMCA reappraisal isn’t conscionable a procedural milestone — it’s a constrictive strategical model to fastener successful North America’s AI vantage earlier different models specify the rules alternatively (Inter-American Dialogue).

In AI, conscionable similar successful trade, the aboriginal isn’t astir decoupling from your closest partners.
It’s astir building with them.

Catch up connected parts 1-4 of Could Mexico marque America large again? here:

• Part 1: An introduction
• Part 2: A primer connected China
• Part 3: Zeroing successful connected the demographics
• Part 4: About that commercialized deficit

Pedro Casas Alatriste is the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham). Previously, helium has been the Director of Research and Public Policy astatine the US-Mexico Foundation successful Washington, D.C. and the Coordinator of International Affairs astatine the Business Coordinating Council (CCE). He has besides served arsenic a advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank.