Former President Donald Trump has characterized the current backlash against artificial intelligence and data centers as a "SICK conspiracy." In a statement released on Monday, Trump argued that the United States possesses "tremendous" regulatory and criminal power over AI companies, and that the only country benefiting from this criticism is China.
Trump stated that the "only reason" for the backlash is that the U.S. is leading other nations in AI development. He warned that slowing down development could allow Chinese AI projects to overtake U.S. companies, creating a national security risk. He emphasized that the only necessary "guardrails" are a "STRONG AND SMART" president.
The commentary comes as executives from Anthropic, OpenAI, and others debate slowing frontier development to allow safety measures to catch up. However, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has noted that pacing the frontier too much could allow China to surpass the U.S., a concern Trump echoed.
Beijing has pushed back against these warnings, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun calling the warnings "fear-mongering." China’s Minister of State Security has described AI as a major battleground for global technological competition.
The geopolitical stance has impacted the market. On Monday, Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares fell more than 3%, while Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD), Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC), and Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL) also declined sharply. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the iShares PHLX SOX Semiconductor Sector Index Fund (NASDAQ: SOXX) and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ: SMH), fell nearly 6%. This decline reflects investor skepticism regarding the prospect of slower AI development.
