OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised President Trump for grasping the economic and geopolitical importance of AI, saying, “he really gets it,” and noting that not all presidents do.
During a New York Times event in San Francisco, tech journalist and Hard Fork podcast host Casey Newton asked Altman, “You’ve talked to President Trump, what does he think about AI? What are those conversations like?” The question drew laughs from the audience, prompting Newton to clarify, “That was not intended to be a laugh line.”
“He really gets it,” answered Altman. “I think he gets the technology. I couldn’t say that about all presidents.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Trump “really understands the importance of leadership in this technology, the potential for economic transformation, the geopolitical importance,” and “the need to build out a lot of infrastructure.” Altman called their talks “very productive,” adding, “he has done stuff that has really helped the whole industry.” He also noted, “It is easier to permit data centers and new energy to run those data centers than it has, I think, ever been before — and that could have gone the other way.”
Since Trump’s January inauguration, Altman has remained closely engaged with the president. A day after Trump’s swearing-in for a second term, he announced a $500 billion U.S. AI infrastructure investment led by Altman, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son—calling it the “largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.” Last month, Altman defended the Trump-brokered AI partnerships with Gulf nations, calling critics of the deals “naive.”
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