Data Centers Are the New Oil, Trump Declares in Surprise Summit Call
US President Donald Trump interrupted a live interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, calling fears of an artificial intelligence takeover a “hoax” and positioning the White House behind rapid technological expansion. The unexpected phone intervention placed semiconductor manufacturers, software developers, and energy infrastructure firms at the center of an escalating policy battle over federal regulation and data center expansion.
White House Aligns With Rapid Tech Expansion as Industry Splits Over Regulatory Controls
During the live broadcast, Huang placed Trump on speakerphone before the summit audience as the president rejected predictions of catastrophic risk and dismissed warnings that autonomous systems could threaten humanity. Trump defended the rapid construction of energy-intensive data centers across the country, characterizing the facilities as essential wealth-generating assets, comparing their strategic importance to oil over the next 25 years, and stating that AI could prove larger than the internet. He further warned that imposing regulatory speed bumps on domestic development would jeopardize America’s technological lead over rival nations like China.
Huang aligned with the push against widespread AI “doomerism,” stating that predictions of widespread job destruction or human extinction are not supported by science. While the Nvidia executive acknowledged that specific whistleblowing warnings deserve attention, he reiterated his position from a July interview that policy should not be shaped by science-fiction scenarios.
The White House’s explicit support for accelerated deployment sharpens an existing rift within the technology sector. Safety-focused leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei alongside executives from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and SpaceX, have repeatedly pushed for mandatory oversight and coordinated development limits to mitigate systemic risks.
