OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised President Donald Trump, saying he understands the importance of AI to both the economy and the geopolitical situation, adding that he couldn’t say the same for all presidents. “He really gets it,” Altman said.
“You’ve talked to President Trump, what does he think about AI? What are those conversations like?” technology journalist and Hard Fork podcast host Casey Newton asked Altman.
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After Newton’s question prompted laughter among audience members viewing the live event hosted by the New York Times in San Francisco, California, the podcast host added, “That was not intended to be a laugh line.”
“He really gets it,” Altman responded. “I think he gets the technology. I couldn’t say that about all presidents.”
The OpenAI CEO added that President 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.”
“They’re very productive conversations,” Atlman added of his talks with President Trump. “And he has done stuff that has really helped the whole industry.”
“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,” the OpenAI CEO asserted.
Notably, Altman has been actively engaging with President since his inauguration earlier this year in January.
One day after Trump was sworn in for his second term in office, the 45th and 47th president announced that Altman, along with Oracle Board Chair and CTO Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, would team up to invest half a trillion dollars in U.S. AI infrastructure.
President Trump called the move the “largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”
Last month, Altman defended the multibillion-dollar AI partnerships between U.S. companies and Gulf nations brokered by President Trump, labeling critics of the deals as “naive.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
