OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other US tech leaders testify to Congress on
AI competition with China
[May 09, 2025] By
MATT BROWN
WASHINGTON (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and executives from Microsoft
and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices testified on Capitol Hill about the
biggest opportunities, risks and needs facing an industry which
lawmakers and technologists agree could fundamentally transform global
business, culture and geopolitics.
The hearing comes as the race to control the future of artificial
intelligence is heating up between companies and countries. Altman's
OpenAI is in a furious race to develop the best artificial intelligence
model against tech rivals like Alphabet and Meta, as well as against
those developed by Chinese competitors.
“I believe this will be at least as big as the internet, maybe bigger,”
Altman said in his opening remarks about AI’s potential to transform
society. “For that to happen, investment in infrastructure is critical.”
Altman urged senators to help usher in the “dual revolutions” of
artificial intelligence and energy production that “will change the
world we live in, I think, in incredibly positive ways.”
The witnesses included Altman; Lisa Su, chief executive of semiconductor
maker AMD; Michael Intrator, co-founder of AI cloud computing startup
CoreWeave; and Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft. The
four executives unanimously urged lawmakers to help streamline policy
for AI-related projects and fundraising.
The hearing spanned topics ranging from industry debates over chip
performance, jobs, human relationships and power generation to grander
questions about the global competition with China and the European
Union.
“China aims to lead the world in AI by 2030,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, chair
of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. “In this
race, the United States is facing a fork in the road. Do we go down the
path that embraces our history of entrepreneurial freedom and
technological innovation? Or do we adopt the command and control
policies of Europe?”
Senators were broadly sober in their questioning and united in their
concern that the U.S. maintain its dominance in artificial intelligence.
Lawmakers from both parties also raised concerns over cybersecurity,
data privacy and AI's ability to create content that could confuse or
mislead people.
Some partisan fighting did arise. Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio
Republican, pressed Su and Smith on whether the Biden administration’s
sustainable energy policies hindered the goal of producing more power
for AI-related infrastructure.
And Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, criticized cuts by
President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to federal funding for
research and to agencies like the Energy Department’s national
laboratories and National Science Foundation, painting them as “a self
sabotaging attack.”
“Does anyone truly have confidence that had DOGE been around decades
ago, they would not have cut the project that created the internet as an
example of wasteful, publicly funded research and development?” asked
Duckworth.
But despite some barbs, the hearing maintained a low-key tenor and some
bipartisan joking as lawmakers and executives discussed the potential of
a technology all present agreed would determine humanity's future.
“Look, there is a race, but we need to understand what we’re racing
for,” Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, told the witnesses. “It’s
not just a sort of commercial race, so we can edge out our nearest
competitor in the public sector or the private sector. We’re trying to
win a race so that American values prevail.”
Trade policy and AI
Several of the executives warned against U.S. export controls that could
end up pushing other countries toward China’s AI technology.
“We totally understand as an industry the importance of national
security,” Su said. But she added, if not able to “have our technology
adopted in the rest of the world, there will be other technologies that
will come to play.” Those technologies are less advanced today but will
mature over time, she said.
[to top of second column] |
Sam Altman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, OpenAI, from
left, testifies before a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation hearing with Dr. Lisa Su, Chief Executive Officer and
Chair, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Michael Intrator,
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CoreWeave, Thursday, May 8,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Altman drew a direct connection between the ability of the U.S. to
attract global talent and sell its products globally to national
security and its international influence.
“The leverage and the power the U.S. gets from having iPhones be the
mobile device people most want, and Google being the search engine that
people most want around the world is huge,” Altman said. “We talk maybe
less about how much people want to use chips and other infrastructure
developed here, but I think it’s no less important, and we should aim to
have the entire U.S. stack be adopted by as much of the world as
possible.”
Trade rivalry between the U.S. and China has been weighing heavily on
the AI industry, including California-based chipmakers Nvidia and AMD.
The Trump administration announced in April that it would restrict sales
of Nvidia’s H20 chips and AMD’s MI308 chips to China.
Nvidia has said the tighter export controls will cost the company an
extra $5.5 billion. AMD said after reporting its quarterly earnings this
week that it will cost the firm $1.5 billion in lost revenue over the
coming months.
Still uncertain are additional AI chip controls set by former President
Joe Biden’s administration that are set to take effect next week
targeting more than 100 countries, including a number of U.S. allies.
The policy drew strong opposition from Nvidia and other tech companies,
while it was supported by others, including AI company Anthropic, as a
way to prevent China’s “sophisticated smuggling operations” to obtain
chips from shell companies in third countries.
The Commerce Department said in an email Thursday that Trump plans to
replace Biden’s “overly complex, overly bureaucratic” rule with a
simpler one but didn’t say when.
AI data center expansion and state competition
The day before the hearing, Altman visited the Abilene, Texas, site of
the massive Stargate data center project being built for OpenAI in
collaboration with Oracle and other partners. The site was chosen for
its potential access to a variety of energy resources, including wind
and solar power.
Altman, during the hearing, said that Texas had been “unbelievable" in
incentivizing major AI projects. “I think that would be a good thing for
other states to study,” Altman said. He predicted that the Abilene site
would be the “largest AI training facility in the world.”
But Altman also later cautioned against a patchwork regulatory framework
for AI.
“It is very difficult to imagine us figuring out how to comply with 50
different sets of regulations,” said Altman. “One federal framework that
is light touch, that we can understand, and it lets us move with the
speed that this moment calls for, seems important and fine.”
While the tech industry has long relied on data centers to run online
services, from email and social media to financial transactions, new AI
technology behind popular chatbots and generative AI tools requires even
more powerful computation to build and operate.
A report released by the Department of Energy late last year estimated
that the electricity needed for data centers in the U.S. tripled over
the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028 when
it could consume up to 12% of the nation’s electricity.
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