Pax Silica Hands the Philippines to Israel’s AI Empire

Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire

Pax Silica is the U.S. Department of State’s flagship effort to coordinate aligned partners across the entire AI supply chain, from critical minerals and energy through semiconductors, logistics, and advanced manufacturing. Under Secretary Jacob Helberg, its operational architect and public face, brought the program to New Clark City in central Luzon, Philippines, during his May 17–21 visit, where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president, Joshua Bingcang, hosted the launch of the Planned Economic Security Zone. But while the world focused on the U.S.-led launch in New Clark City, Israel was quietly securing its place as Pax Silica’s indispensable partner, turning the Philippines’ first Golden Node into something far more concrete than anyone expected.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by US Embassy in the Philippines (@usembassyph)

Israel opens the node

Israel is not treating the Philippines as a diplomatic footnote. Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Dana Kursh has publicly called the country a key Pax Silica partner. She explicitly paired Philippine nickel and other critical minerals with Israel’s strengths in AI, chip design, and cybersecurity. That single statement laid bare the operating logic, which includes raw materials on one side of the table, and high-end technical capability on the other.

The policy layer runs deeper. Eden Bar Tal, Israel’s Director General of Foreign Affairs and chair of its critical minerals steering committee, sat down with Philippine officials in Tel Aviv, including the Philippine Ambassador to Israel Aileen Mendiola. They mapped out minerals processing and the AI technology ecosystem, including a possible bilateral MOU on processing, R&D, and semiconductor-linked AI development.

IMAGE: From right to left: Director General Eden Bar Tal of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and H.E. Ambassador Aileen Mendiola (Source: BOI)

It was only a matter of time before the companies arrived. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Board of Investments (BOI) have already courted Tower Semiconductor, Next Silicon, and Ci Semi for the Clark hub. Together, these entities constitute the precise industrial signatures of Israel’s role in the project. Israeli officials and firms are already inside Pax Silica, actively populating its first physical node.

New Clark City as prototype

New Clark City is not just another industrial park. BCDA says the 4,000-acre site will host the first Pax Silica coordination office and has been designated the inaugural “Golden Node.” Its planned functions range from packaging and logistics to semiconductor integration, minerals processing, AI infrastructure, and the power and data systems needed to run it all.

During the May 18 marker unveiling, Helberg was joined by executives from Allegro Microsystems, Amkor Technology, Analog Devices, Microchip Technology, Onsemi, and SIA (Semiconductor Industry Association), former Director of Global Policy, Jennifer Meng, along with investors from 8VC, Agility Robotics, Joby Aviation, and Valar Atomics.

The Philippines is being placed squarely in the downstream segment to provide assembly, processing, and logistics. This setup lets the network concentrate the most sensitive chokepoints under tighter control while expanding on allied territory. In other words, New Clark City has quietly become a managed landing zone.

The sovereignty debate cuts straight to the point. Philippine officials rejected any U.S. proposal that would place the zone under American jurisdiction or grant diplomatic immunity. Helberg later insisted the U.S. never sought it. The site remains under Philippine law. Yet the deal’s sweeteners, a two-year rent-free grace period and heavy infrastructure commitments, signal something more strategic than a typical industrial estate. The still-pending Supplemental Agreement and the U.S. engineering team’s concept plan due in June will quietly define the real boundaries, personnel rules, access controls, and internal security regime.

Philippines-Israel workstream and  the wider machine

The Philippines and Israel have moved far beyond ceremonial talks. On May 1, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry and the Board of Investment (BOI) managing head, Ceferino Rodolfo, met with Bar Tal in Tel Aviv. Discussions focused on critical minerals processing and AI cooperation under the Pax Silica framework, including a possible MOU. On this occasion, Rodolfo sat down with Israeli microships design firms Dream Security and Binary Networks, and engaged with Israel’s Trade Ministry, the Israel National AI Directorate, and stakeholders in Israel’s blue economy industry.

IMAGE: Palawan: a natural treasure in peril as the world scrambles for critical minerals 

Israeli officials highlighted their advanced mining, water, and environmental technologies as tools to help the Philippines upgrade nickel, copper, and cobalt into higher-value green-tech components for the AI supply chain. Ambassador Dana Kursh has since called the partnership “tremendous,” openly noting how Philippine minerals fill a gap Israel cannot address on its own while tying the effort directly to resilience at the Clark hub. The Philippines is a global leader in nickel (the world’s largest exporter of raw nickel ore) and has significant copper reserves (4th-largest globally). Cobalt is almost entirely a byproduct of nickel laterite mining. Processing hubs are eyed in areas like Zambales, Surigao, Dinagat, and Palawan. For copper mines, Mindanao Tampakan Copper-Gold Project (South Cotabato; one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposits), King-king and Silangan projects in the Zamboanga Peninsula and Diwalwal areas will likely be of interest.

New Clark City only makes sense inside a larger architecture. The Quad Critical Minerals Initiative secures a diversified supply. FORGE, the successor to the Minerals Security Partnership, supplies project financing and discipline. Pax Silica sits above both as the public brand and capital-deployment engine.

The initiative is backed by a $250 million U.S. seed fund that aims to unlock a $1–4 trillion consortium with sovereign partners including SoftBank, Temasek, and Abu Dhabi (UAE) based Mubadala. This is the financing conduit that turns prototype nodes like New Clark City into bankable assets. Early signs of expansion are already visible in the planned September Japan–US–Philippines investment forum.

What it means

This is bloc formation for the AI age, dressed in the language of resilience and trusted partnership. The Philippines supplies land, minerals, labor, and a governable downstream site. Israel supplies advanced technical capability and a willing second core partner. The United States supplies the architecture, diplomatic cover, and investment logic.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom: The Capstone and the Buried Chambers of the Deep Digital State

Pax Silica is becoming a repeatable model for converting allied resources and policy concessions into governed supply-chain nodes. New Clark City is the first demonstration that the model works, while Israel’s active presence proves the prototype is already scaling into a broader network.

Yet the human cost is coming into focus. The 4,000-acre zone sits on territory long claimed by the Aeta indigenous communities. Ancestral domain applications through the NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) remain unresolved. As the concept plan and Supplemental Agreement advance, local farmers and indigenous groups face displacement, restricted access to traditional lands, and environmental strain from rapid industrial buildout and power expansion.

In the end, Pax Silica is laying the groundwork for a permanently guarded global AI supply-chain order. Just days ago, on May 30–31, Congress advanced Section 224 of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative. It would deepen U.S.-Israeli integration on AI, cyber, data fusion, and network systems at the exact moment Pax Silica’s Golden Nodes are being wired into the same stack.

The machine is not just running. It is being built to run the world.

READ MORE ISRAEL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Israel Files

SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

VISIT OUR TELEGRAM CHANNEL

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.

Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2026/06/02/pax-silica-hands-the-philippines-to-israels-ai-empire/