David Sachs, the White House “czar” for artificial intelligence policy, speaks to President Trump while signing a series of executive orders in the Oval Office on January 23, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Hide Caption
toggle caption
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Trump entered the White House reversing dozens of actions taken by his predecessor.
But he did find at least one last-minute Joe Biden reading. He actually wants to keep it. An executive order designating more federal land for AI data centers.
“I want to see federal land opened up for data centers. I think they’re going to be very important,” Trump said.
This is a rare common ground between the two administrations and demonstrates the growing importance of artificial intelligence. Biden called it “the most consequential technology of our time” in his farewell speech.
Trump will sign a new executive order on Thursday to begin developing an action plan to “maintain and strengthen America’s dominance of AI.” He was flanked by David Sachs, a tech entrepreneur and podcaster whom Trump has named his ai’czar.
Earlier this week, Trump invited CEOs from Openai, Softbank, and Oracle to the White House to announce what could end up being a $500 billion investment in U.S. AI data centers.
Work on the project was well underway in Texas before Trump took office, but business leaders wanted to give Trump credit for announcing the investment.
“This monumental effort is an overwhelming declaration of confidence in America’s potential under a new president,” Trump said. “We want to keep it in this country. China is a competitor, everyone else is a competitor…We have to build this thing.”
But Trump doesn’t love everything about Biden’s work in AI
That doesn’t mean Trump is taking away all of Biden’s work on AI priorities. On Day 1, Trump repealed Biden’s first AI executive order starting October 2023. It provided regulations for the development and testing of AI and took sweeping steps that touched on issues of fairness and discrimination in the technology.
Alondra Nelson, who worked on AI policy under the Biden administration and is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, says that decision is short-sighted. She hopes to see a clearer overall vision for AI from the new White House.
“Early in the Trump administration, it seems like the Chess Commission is struggling to get to a place where it can think about its AI ecosystem and its larger strategy,” Nelson said.
The Trump administration is expected to do more to regulate AI, said John Vilsener of UCLA’s Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy, but he said it’s still early days.
Villasenor says the Trump administration’s approach to AI is similar to how European countries are approaching AI, with the Biden White House’s “fear-based” narrative focusing on risks and preventing negative outcomes from the technology. I expect something different from what is called.
Added elements of billionaire drama
In the meantime, there was already a conflict over one of the AI-related announcements Trump made.
On Tuesday, Trump adviser Elon Musk criticized the announcement after the tech CEO trumpeted the investment. Musk, the world’s richest man, owns Tesla, SpaceX, and social media platform X.
“They don’t actually have any money,” Musk posted on X.com. “SoftBank has secured less than $100 billion in collateral, which I have in good authority.” Openai CEO Sam Altman shot back at the platform, saying that was wrong.
On Thursday, Trump shrugged off the conflict and explained that Musk and Altman don’t get along. “I also have people’s hatred,” Trump said.
