At Trump's inauguration, Openry CEO Sam Altman was relegated to the overflow room, while other tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were on the verge of the Capitol. We've won the Prime Spot for Day.
But a few days ago, before flying to Washington, Altman was on the phone with Trump, highlighting Musk and preparing an announcement that would put Altman's company at the heart of the new administration's agenda on artificial intelligence. .
On the 25-minute call, Altman appealed to Trump's big story and love for the big deal. In the presidential election, Altman said the technology industry will achieve artificial general information during the Trump administration, a hypothetical moment in which technology coincides with human intelligence. It also completed a $100 billion transaction to build data centers across the country to reach the front of its competitors from China, Openai, Oracle and Softbank competitors.
The day after taking office, Altman stood behind Trump in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, announcing a deal called Stargate, describing it as “the much larger AI infrastructure project in history.” .
Stargate had been working for months, but Altman and his partners have timed the announcement to help Trump trust it on the first day of his inauguration.
“We can't do this without you,” Altman said before a gathering of reporters.
Since Trump's election, Silicon Valley billionaires have been making jokes to influence the new administration. None of them have been as successful as Musk, who supported the Trump campaign with over $250 million in money, and now they have the power to cut jobs and budgets across the federal government.
Trump's election and Musk's insider status with the new administration could close the door for Altman's influence in Washington. Altman, 39, was Trump's longtime Democratic donor and raucous critic during his first term. Additionally, he was close to the top of Mr Musk's enemy list. The two once fought for Openai's control, but still fight it in court. Musk also formed his own AI company and competed with Altman's company.
Altman highlighted Musk and became the highlight of the new administration's early AI agenda before China, marking the talent for nearly 20 years of trade shape in Silicon Valley. . It also provided Trump's view of flexible loyalty and the limitations of his ability to influence Musk's technological policy when it comes to being pleaded.
Even before the presidential election, Altman quietly went into Trump's inner circle, according to interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with Trump's drive. Many of the details of that courtship that lasted for several months have never been reported before.
In a statement sent to the New York Times, Open spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said the company is looking forward to working with President Trump. ”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Altman is Doug Burgham, the ultimate candidate for North Dakota Governor and Trump's Secretary of Home Affairs, as well as Larry Ellison, co-founder of software company Oracle, and Larry Ellison, son of Masayoshi. I relied on my relationship with. Japanese conglomerate Softbank.
During the Biden administration, Altman became a familiar face in Washington, meeting with White House officials and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to guide AI regulation. He regularly communicated with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo via private text threads, according to someone familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
As the 2024 election approached, Altman questioned President Biden's ability to win. However, he donated to Biden's reelection campaign in 2023 and to Democrat organizations in many states.
He also donated to Republican campaigns (not in the Trump campaign) and communicated regularly with Republican lawmakers. And privately, Openai was hedging bets. Two Openai executives met with Trump in a hotel room in Las Vegas, according to two people familiar with the conference. Altman was also scheduled to attend the meeting, but after testing positive for Covid, he bowed.
The meeting was arranged by Mr. Bergham. He had a long-standing relationship with Open President Greg Brockman. Greg Brockman was born in Thompson.
At a meeting in Las Vegas, Brockman and Openry Chief Operating Officer Brad Wrightcap showed Trump the company Sora, the AI video generator that was not yet open to the public, the two said. I said that. With this technology, anyone can simply type a sentence into a box on their computer screen and generate videos like a flock of wool mammoths running through snowy pastures.
To build this type of technology, companies like Openai explained that they needed large computer data centers supported by vast amounts of electricity. They focused on the language of construction and infrastructure, appealing to the background of Trump's real estate, saying these huge facilities are essential when the US competes with China to lead the development of AI. Ta.
When he accepted the Republican nomination the following month, Trump trumpeted the importance of electricity in the AI world. He said.
However, as Altman and other Openai executives worked to strengthen political ties, they struggled to secure the $100 billion needed for Stargate.
Altman's biggest challenge is his reliance on the company's investors. Openai has raised over $13 billion from Microsoft in return for an exclusive deal to buy computing power from Tech Giant. But Openai wanted more computing power.
In late 2023, Altman negotiated with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to build a new $100 billion data center infrastructure (a project already known as “Stargate”) and openedai The board unexpectedly fired him. He was revived five days later, but Mr. Nadella was scared and decided not to put money in for Stargate. According to two people familiar with Microsoft negotiations, Altman needed another way to build Stargate.
(The New York Times sued Openai and its partner Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of news content related to AI Systems. Openai and Microsoft denied these claims.)
Altman was discussing SoftBank and Son's potential investments. According to three people familiar with the discussion, the two men met in Openai's office in the early summer of 2024. After Microsoft agreed to the exception in an exclusive agreement with Openai, the startup signed a $10 billion data center agreement with Oracle, asking for something much larger.
When Oracle built a new data center campus in Abilene, Texas, Altman wanted to expand it to the $100 billion project he had imagined several months ago. However, the Biden administration had expressed concern over Openai's efforts to secure additional funding from Middle Eastern investors. And potential investors were worried that the government would be slow to provide approval for projects that require a huge amount of land and electricity.
After Trump was elected, the sentiment surrounding the deal changed. Over the next few weeks, SoftBank, Oracle and Open have each agreed to put money at Stargate, said the three well-versed in negotiations. They also secured funding from MGX, a high-tech investment company managed by the United Arab Emirates.
As the inauguration approached, many of Altman's AI rivals met the presidential election at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Efforts to cut down Openai's technology.
What Altman could do was meet in Palm Springs, other than Trump's Commerce secretary candidate Howard Lutnick and Mar-a-Lago, according to three people familiar with the conference.
After giving $1 million to Trump's first fund, Altman was invited to the first festival. But it's not clear who arranged a call with the presidential election on Friday afternoon, according to four people familiar with the deal.
On inauguration day, Mr. Altman, Mr. Ellison and his son were at the ceremony at the Capitol building, but were largely overlooked by the public. Earlier the next day, they gathered at a suite at the five-star Riggs hotel in Washington, mapping how they would announce their partnership to the world, according to four people familiar with the conference. When they bite into the cold cut and fruit, they tried to place a draft of the blog post on a screen hanging on the wall. At first, I was unable to get the screen to work. Altman, the youngest of the three, then worked.
In the afternoon, Stargate partners rode a caravan towards the White House and walked to the visitors' entrance for a public event they had agreed to on a previous call with Trump. However, they waited for 10-20 minutes in the cold of 10 degrees. On Trump's second day in office, there was a problem with the White House computer system. And Ellison had forgotten his driver's license, according to three people who were familiar with the moment.
Eventually, Altman, son and Ellison followed Trump to the Roosevelt Room. In his opening remarks, Trump again mentioned the power needs of data centers, describing it as “a big, beautiful building that employs a lot of people.”
He introduced Mr. Altman, wearing a gray suit, a blue tie and American flag pins.
In a pair's post to X that night, Musk attacked the deal, claiming that Altman and his partners didn't have the initial $100 billion for their projects. .
The next day, Altman took him to X with a new observation about the president.
“I'm not going to agree with him all, but I think he'll be incredible for the country in many ways!” he wrote.
The administration was not on Musk's side. “Americans should bring the words of President Trump and the CEO for that,” White House spokesman Carolyn Leavitt told Fox News the same day. “These investments are coming to our great nations and American work is coming with them.”
The president also broke down. “He hates one of the people,” Trump told reporters. “But I also have people's hatred.”
Less than a week later, after a Chinese startup called Deepseek unveiled powerful AI technology built with fewer specialized chips than many experts thought could, the US financial markets were I fell unexpectedly. Experts questioned whether Stargate was the right move.
Altman returned to Washington and had dinner with a Republican lawmaker two days later. The next morning he spoke with Congressional members, policymakers and think tank leaders at a private event in a sparkling rental space close to the lobbying shops on Google and Amazon.
When Altman was asked what Deepseek means as he and his partner committed $100 billion to the new data center, Altman compiled the question. “$500 billion,” he said. Then he answered.
He said AI technology continues to improve as companies like Openai continue to increase their computing resources.
“We should want to continue doing that,” he said.
Theodore Schleifer contributed the report.
