Cai Cuihong, Hou Lexuan，Latin America' s Multi -Dimensional Hedging Strategy in Artificial Intelligence，Journal of Latin American Studies，No.4，2026

Abstract: As global competition over artificial intelligence continues to intensify, Latin American nations are enduring unprecedented technological subordination and mounting geopolitical pressures. Major global technological powers, including the United States, China, and the European Union, have engaged in fierce strategic rivalry over AI technological systems, industry standards, and industrial ecosystems. This great -power competition has continuously spilled over into developing regions, significantly compressing the strategic autonomy and policy space of Latin American countries in digital technological governance. This paper establishes an innovative multi -dimensional hedging analytical framework to systematically interpret the complex and composite strategic behaviors adopted by Latin American states in the AI domain. Rather than passively accepting the established global technological order, Latin American countries actively pursue limited but crucial strategic autonomy by implementing a multi -dimensional hedging strategy driven by both internal developmental demands and external geopolitical pressures. This strategy advances coordinately across technological, institutional, and alliance dimensions. Its formation stems from three intertwined driving forces: 1) structural strategic opportunities brought by great -power technological pressures and competition, 2) the inherent demand to break long-term technological dependence, and 3) uphold digital sovereignty, and the practical need to resolve domestic economic and technological development bottlenecks. In practice, Latin America adopts gradient technological hedging through limited opening of basic technologies, diversified cooperation in applied technologies, and independent control of core strategic technologies. It also conducts institutional hedging via innovative regulatory integration and localized revision of technical standards, and pursues alliance hedging through regional coordination and collective solidarity with the Global South. While this multi -pronged strategy has helped Latin America gain partial strategic initiative, it still confronts multiple structural and practical challenges in implementation.

Key words: Latin America, artificial intelligence, multi – dimensional hedging, Global South, AI strategy