As the United States and China vie for dominance in artificial intelligence in 2025, Saudi tech diplomat Deemah Al-Yahya is busy promoting a nascent alliance as a potential refuge from geopolitical tensions: Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization, an intergovernmental group launched in 2020 to forge collaboration among emerging economies. 

“I don’t know how politically correct this is, but I think DCO is positioned to be the neutral haven,” said Yahya, the organization’s secretary-general, in an interview with Al-Monitor. DCO counts 16 member states across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia, representing a collective gross domestic product of $3.5 trillion and a population of 800 million. Its mission: to accelerate the inclusive growth of the digital economy among member states by working collaboratively with governments, the private sector and civil society.

Her work with DCO is timely. AI advancements are rapidly reshaping the global playing field, and developing nations risk being left behind — or forced to align with either Washington or Beijing — as they seek new engines of growth in the digital era. “We are the new voice, we always say, for emerging markets that want to collaborate,” Yahya noted. 

From her vantage point, that requires working with both East and West. Yet this balancing act isn’t without risks, as evidenced by Washington restricting the export of advanced AI chips to some Middle East countries in 2023 while pressuring them to divest from Chinese tech.