WASHINGTON – In possession of US President Donald Trump, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAi, was relegated to an external hall while other technology billionaires such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg occupied under the capitol roundabout.
But days before, before flying to Washington, Altman was on the phone with Trump, preparing an announcement that would overcome Musk and place Altman’s company at the center of the new agenda agenda for artificial intelligence.
In the 25 -minute call, Altman appealed to Trump’s love for a big story and a big deal. He told president -elect that the technology industry would reach artificial general intelligence – the hypothetical moment when technology equals human intelligence – during the Trump administration, according to three people familiar with the connection. And to get there before Chinese competitors, OpenAi, Oracle and Softbank had completed a $ 100 billion agreement to build data centers across the country.
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The day after the inauguration, Altman was after Trump in the White House Roosevelt room while, called Stargate, and described him as the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”
Stargate had been underway for months, but Altman and his partners timed on the announcement to allow Trump to take the credit for him in his early days.
“We would not be able to do this without you, mr. President, ”said Altman in front of a group of reporters.
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Since Trump’s election, Silicon Valley billionaires have played to influence the new administration. None of them have been more successful than Musk, which with more than $ 250 million of their own money and now apparently has the power to cut jobs and budgets throughout the government.
Trump’s election and the status of insider From Musk with the new administration could have closed the door to Altman’s influence on Washington. Altman, 39, was a longtime democratic donor and a fierce critic of Trump during his first term. Also, he was close to Musk’s. The two had already fought for control of OpenAi and are still battling in the courts. Musk also to compete directly with Altman’s company.
The fact that Altman was able to overcome Musk and make OpenAi the center of the source AI of the new administration to stay in front of China was a testimony of Altman’s talent to adapt and nearly two decades of Silicon Valley negotiations . It also offered a vision of Trump’s flexible loyalties when it comes to being courted, as well as the limits of Musk’s ability to influence technology policy.
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Even before the presidential election, Altman worked quietly to enter Trump’s intimate circle, according to interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with Altman’s effort to win Trump. Many of the details of this procession, which lasted months, have never been reported before.
In a statement sent by email to The New York TimesOpenai spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois said the company eagerly awaited working with Trump to ensure “AI potential to boost economic growth and advance in the scientific discovery that benefits as many people as possible”.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
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Altman had relationships with Doug Burgum, the governor of Northern Dakota and now Trump’s interior secretary, and two other allies of Trump: Larry Ellison, co -founder of Oracle software company, and Masayoshi Son, founder of Japanese conglomerate Softbank.
During the Biden administration, Altman became a familiar figure in Washington, meeting with White House employees and a bipartisan group of legislators to guide AI regulations. He communicated regularly through a private messaging group with the Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, according to a person familiar with the arrangement he spoke on anonymous condition.
As the 2024 election was approaching, Altman questioned former President Joe Biden’s ability to win. But he donated to Biden’s campaign in 2023, as well as to many state democratic party organizations.
He also donated to republican campaigns (but not to Trump’s campaign) and communicated regularly with republican legislators. And in private, OpenAi was betting on both sides. In early June, two OpenAi executives met Trump in a hotel room in Las Vegas, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Altman planned to attend the meeting as well, but gave up after testing positive for Covid-19.
Burgum organized the meeting. He had a relationship of years with OpenAi president Greg Brockman, who was born in Thompson, Dakota do Norte. Some OpenAi employees call them the two most important people in the technology that the state has ever produced.
During the meeting in Las Vegas, Brockman and OpenAi’s director of operations, Brad Lightcap, showed Trump the company’s AI video generator, Sora, who had not yet been released to the public, both people said. With technology, anyone can generate videos – such as a flock of thready mammoths bringing through a snowy meadow – simply by typing a sentence in a box on the computer screen.
To build this type of technology, they explained, companies like OpenAi needed huge computer data centers supported by huge amounts of electricity. They focused on language around construction and infrastructure, appealing to Trump’s history, and said these giant facilities would be essential as the United States competed with China to lead AI development.
By accepting republican appointment in July, Trump highlighted the importance of electricity in the AI world. ‘AI needs a tremendous amount – literally twice the electricity available now in our country, can you imagine?’ He said.
But while Altman and other OpenAi executives worked to strengthen political connections, they were struggling to secure the $ 100 billion they needed for Stargate.
Altman had been discussing possible investments with Softbank and Son. The two met in OpenAi’s offices in early summer of 2024, according to three people familiar with their discussions. After Microsoft agreed with an exception in its exclusive contract with OpenAi, Startup signed a $ 10 billion agreement for Oracle data centers and pressed for something much larger.
While Oracle built a new data center campus in Abilene, Texas, Altman expected to expand this to the $ 100 billion project he and Nadella had imagined months earlier. But Biden administration expressed concern about OpenAi’s efforts to ensure more money from investors in the Middle East. And potential investors were concerned that the government would take time to provide approvals for a project that required huge amounts of land and electricity.
The feeling about the agreement changed after Trump’s election. In the following weeks, Softbank, Oracle and OpenAi agreed to invest in Stargate, three people said with the negotiations. They also secured financing from MGX, a technology investment company controlled by the United Arab Emirates.
As the possession approached, many of Altman’s AI rivals met Trump in Florida, including Musk and Zuckerberg, which has distributed AI technology of the goal in an effort to devalue OpenAi technology.
The best that Altman managed was a meeting with Howard Lutnick, nominated by Trump for secretary of commerce, according to three people familiar with the meeting.
After donating $ 1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, Altman was invited to the inaugural festivities. But a mutual acquaintance-it is unclear who, ”Altman’s telephone call on Friday afternoon with the president-elect, according to four people familiar with the arrangements.
On the inauguration day, Altman, Ellison and Son were at the Capitol ceremony, but were widely ignored by the public. Earlier the next day, they gathered in a Riggs Hotel suite in Washington to mapping as they would reveal their partnership to the world, according to four people familiar with the meeting. As they pinned cold cuts and fruits, they tried to put the draft of a blog post on a screen hanging on the wall. At first, they could not make the screen work. So Altman, the youngest of the three, managed to make her work.
In the afternoon, Stargate’s partners went to the White House and walked to the visitors’ entrance to a public event that had agreed in that previous connection with Trump. But they were left waiting in the cold of 10 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes. On Trump’s second day, there were problems with the White House computer system. And Ellison had forgotten her driver’s license, according to three people familiar with the moment.
Later, Altman, Son and Ellison followed Trump to Roosevelt room. In his opening comments, Trump referred again to the demands of data centers electricity, which he described as ‘great, beautiful buildings that will employ many people.’
He introduced Altman as ‘by far the greatest expert, based on everything I read.’
That night, in X -posts, Musk attacked the deal, insisting that Altman and his partners did not have the initial $ 100 billion for his project, much less the $ 500 billion they promised to invest eventually.
The next day, Altman went to X with new observations about the president.
‘I won’t agree with him in everything, but I think he will be amazing for the country in many ways!’ He wrote.
The administration was not on Musk’s side. “The American people should believe in the words of President Trump and these CEOs,” Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, told Fox News The same day. “These investments are coming to our great country, and US jobs are coming with them.”
The president also hesitated. ‘He hates one of the people,’ Trump told reporters in an apparent reference to Musk’s dislike by Altman. ‘But I also have certain antipathies for people.’
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