GuShiio.com ① The latest revelation over the weekend demonstrated Altman’s flexible figure and sense of smell in the political field;
② As a long-time supporter of the Democratic Party, Altman has long begun to question Biden’s ability to win and has begun to engage with Republican lawmakers;
③ In the end, Altman hit Trump’s liking for big deals with his huge investment in the “Stargate” project.
Cailian News, February 8 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng)After spending more than $200 million to help Trump win back the presidency, Musk, the world’s richest man, took the opportunity to become “the most powerful businessman in the United States.” At the same time, Musk’s longtime enemy Altman unexpectedly appeared in the White House, standing in the “core C position” that affects artificial intelligence policies.
The latest revelations over the weekend showed thatThis former YC president and the technology trendsetters who have driven the AI wave also have a flexible figure and sense of smell in politics.
From spare room to political center
Judging from Altman’s identity tag, no matter how you look at him, he should be a loser in the context of “Trump 2.0 Administration”-a 39-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneurial leader who has long donated money to the Democratic Party and has repeatedly criticized Trump. Due to the line dispute over OpenAI, Altman and Trump’s hard-core buddy Musk have completely gotten into trouble, and the two are still fighting a lawsuit.
So at the presidential inauguration ceremony on January 20, Musk was able to sit in the most conspicuous position with a group of tech tycoons.Altman, who also donated “partial money”, also went to the Capitol, but could only stay in the spare room and watch the live broadcast.
However,Just one day later, Altman stood with Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House and jointly announced the “Stargate” project with Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison, which could reach up to US$500 billion.
Seeing that the Trump administration’s artificial intelligence agenda was pre-empted by Altman, Musk angrily publicly criticized “how can Softbank have so much money?” In response, Trump calmly expressed his disagreement with Musk’s doubts, saying bluntly that he just “hated one of them (Altman).”
According to local media citing more than a dozen people familiar with the matter, although Altman had never attracted attention before, he had quietly entered Trump’s inner circle before last year’s election. The relationship between OpenAI and Trump is far closer than the outside world.
Responding to the latest report, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company looks forward to working with President Trump to ensure that artificial intelligence “has the potential to drive economic growth and promote scientific discovery to benefit as many people as possible.”
key figure
It is reported thatAltman joined Trump through his fellow countryman, then-North Dakota Governor Doug Bogum (now approved as interior secretary of the Trump administration).At the same time, Masayoshi Son, Larry Ellison and Trump are also closely related and have contributed in this process.
At the same time, Altman’s close relationship with the Biden administration also helped him become a “familiar face” in American politics and was able to meet regularly with lawmakers from both parties.
The most important point is thatAs the 2024 election approaches, Altman is questioning Biden’s ability to win。He began donating money to Republican campaign organizations and was in frequent contact with Republican lawmakers.
People familiar with the matter saidAs early as June last year, two OpenAI executives met with Trump in a hotel room in Las Vegas, and it was Bogum who set the meeting.。Altman was originally scheduled to attend the meeting, but was absent due to a positive COVID-19 test.
At that meeting, OpenAI President Brockman and Chief Operating Officer Wright Karp showed Trump the video generation tool Sora. They used language that real estate developers could understand, emphasizing the importance of electricity and computing infrastructure.
Later, at the Republican Convention in July, Trump, who had just escaped assassination, spoke eloquently: “Artificial intelligence requires huge amounts-literally, twice the electricity available in our country, can you imagine?”
As a symbol of Altman’s political opportunity, the fate of the Stargate project has also changed sharply in the past year.
In fact, as early as the “OpenAI civil strife”, Microsoft had already discussed investment in this project with OpenAI. Although Altman quickly “reinstated”, Nadella was uneasy about the turmoil in OpenAI and stopped the investment. So Altman needs to find other ways to advance this project.
After Microsoft withdrew, Altman has been negotiating computing power investment with Masayoshi Son and Ellison. With Trump’s election, the mood of the deal quickly changed. Softbank, Oracle and OpenAI each agreed to invest in the “Stargate”, and they also brought in MGX from the United Arab Emirates to join.
As the inauguration ceremony approaches, leading figures in the AI field, including Musk and Zuckerberg, have visited Mar-a-Lago Manor to meet with Trump, building relationships while not forgetting to belittle OpenAI. Until that moment, the best arrangement Altman could do was to meet with Lutnik, who was nominated as Commerce Secretary.
According to people familiar with the matter,The final turning point occurred on the last Friday before Trump was sworn in。Under the arrangement of a “common acquaintance”, Altman and Trump had a 25-minute phone call. The “Hundred Billion Dollar Project” successfully hit Trump’s love for grand narratives and big deals, making it leap into the core of the artificial intelligence policy of the “Trump 2.0 Government”.
It is reported thatAltman deliberately announced the long-prepared “Stargate” project after Trump took office, so that the new president could take credit for it and gain greater political support.
However, with the emergence of DeepSeek, the story is changing from an “exclamation point” to a “question mark”. Many commentators have begun to question whether the huge investment in the “Stargate” is still correct.
Faced with turmoil in financial markets, Altman flew to Washington last Wednesday to have dinner with Republican lawmakers and held a private lobbying event the next day.
Asked what DeepSeek meant to their 0 billion investment project, Altman corrected it to “0 billion” and then said,As companies like OpenAI continue to increase computing power resources, artificial intelligence technology continues to improve.。He said: “We should want to continue doing this.”
