US President Donald Trump said the United States must remain ahead of China in the race to dominate artificial intelligence, describing AI as a technology with greater long-term significance than the internet. Speaking in an interview with CNBC, Trump said maintaining American leadership in AI was a strategic priority and warned against allowing China to overtake the United States.
"AI is bigger than the internet," Trump said. "I've never seen anything. The internet was a big deal. I think this is much bigger than the internet." Trump said the country leading AI development would gain a decisive global advantage. "I really think whoever's number one is going to really win the race.
And right now, we're substantially number one." The President also said the United States was leading China in artificial intelligence development. "We're leading substantially in AI over China and everybody else." He said the country's expanding AI industry would require a dramatic increase in electricity generation and claimed his administration had found a solution by allowing companies to build their own power generation facilities.
"We need double the energy, double the electricity that we have right now to do that, just that one AI industry." "I let the plants, as they build these billions and billions of dollars of plants, I let them build their own electric generating plants." Trump argued the policy had helped preserve America's technological advantage.
"If I didn't come up with that concept, we wouldn't have... we would be in last place." The President said safeguards were necessary but warned against excessive regulation of AI. "You need some guard rails, but you want to do as little as possible." He said his administration would act quickly when it identified potential security risks.
"When we think there's a bad player out there, there's a little danger, we stop the player quickly and effectively." Trump also linked AI leadership to his broader efforts to rebuild domestic semiconductor manufacturing. He said major chipmakers were investing in new production facilities in the United States and predicted the country would regain a significant share of global semiconductor manufacturing.
"They're building chip factories in Arizona." "We're going to have 40 to 50 to 60 per cent of the chips, I think, by the time or pretty close to the time I leave office." Trump said the United States had previously lost much of its semiconductor manufacturing capacity to Asia.
"Taiwan literally took 100 per cent of the business, almost. Mostly Taiwan, but South Korea a little bit." He also disclosed that his administration had sought an equity stake while helping Intel recover. "I said, I can solve your problem, but I want 10 per cent of the company."
The President said the approach had generated significant value. "I think we made $60 or 70 billion in eight months." Artificial intelligence has become a central area of strategic competition between the United States and China, with both countries investing heavily in advanced computing, semiconductors and AI applications. Governments increasingly view leadership in AI as critical to future economic growth, military capability and technological influence.