Story perspectives

Trump Rejects AI Slowdown, Vows U.S. Lead Over China

By Drooid · Sep 14, 2026, 9:57 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Trump Rejects AI Slowdown

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will keep its AI lead over China, rejecting slowdown.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged a global AI slowdown in an essay on Sept 12.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Amodei’s proposal.
China’s foreign ministry called U.S. slowdown calls “fearmongering” and a “Cold War playbook.”
President Xi Jinping will meet President Donald Trump on Sept 24 in Washington to discuss AI.

Summary

Anthropic Files IPO

Anthropic filed a confidential IPO prospectus in June, targeting a Nasdaq debut next month.
Anthropic’s valuation hit $965 billion this year, and the IPO could target a $2 trillion market cap.
Analysts warn a slowdown may force a valuation discount as investors doubt safe commercialization.
Researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, saying the company and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives.”
Observers label the slowdown plea a move toward regulatory capture or antitrust collusion.

History

Historical Context

In 2020 Congress passed the National AI Initiative Act, allocating $2.5 billion and creating a National AI Initiative Office and NSF-run AI Research Institutes. The NSF program, announced in 2019, had funded 27 institutes with roughly $500 million by 2024, illustrating the U.S. strategy to match China’s 2017 AI Development Plan and its 2023 generative-AI regulations under Xi Jinping.

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Trump Rejects AI Slowdown

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will keep its AI lead over China, rejecting slowdown.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged a global AI slowdown in an essay on Sept 12.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Amodei’s proposal.
China’s foreign ministry called U.S. slowdown calls “fearmongering” and a “Cold War playbook.”
President Xi Jinping will meet President Donald Trump on Sept 24 in Washington to discuss AI.

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