Those Behind the Curtain

As U.S. President Donald Trump took the oath of office for his second term, cameras focused on a group of names among the attendees. Technology giants, typically known for maintaining a politically neutral stance and seeking influence among both Democrats and Republicans, took front-row seats at Trump’s second inauguration. This image signaled a new and pragmatic alliance between Silicon Valley and the White House. The approximately two-week-old Artificial Intelligence Action Plan contains key elements that give concrete form to this alliance.

Moreover, this shift symbolized a radical departure from the previous Biden administration’s AI policies. Biden had pursued a “security first” principle in AI, introducing mandatory security tests, oversight requirements, and transparency conditions for developers through a 2023 executive order. Shortly after assuming office, Donald Trump rescinded this order and issued a new one titled Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. Compared to the “security-focused” AI documents issued during the Biden era, this bold move clearly expressed America’s desire to decisively lead in global AI competition. Last week, the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Action Plan was published under the title “Winning the Race.”

In the first paragraph of the plan’s introduction, America is urged to win the AI race just as it won the space race. This approach reveals that American policymakers continue to view AI technologies as a field of competition. However, the strategy for achieving dominance is not envisioned solely through government initiatives and actions but also through the alliance between the state and corporations mentioned above. The 2025 Artificial Intelligence Action Plan can be read as evidence of a deep and symbiotic partnership between the U.S. government and the nation’s technology giants. Figures such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Jensen Huang, whom we focus on here, emerge not merely as beneficiaries of this action plan but as its designers, formulators, and implementers.

The plan’s stated objective can be summarized as achieving clear dominance in global AI innovation, infrastructure, and exports, primarily vis-à-vis China. The path to achieving this goal—“winning the race”—is to make American AI technologies available worldwide as integrated packages. To accomplish this, rapid expansion of the American AI ecosystem is deemed essential. The overall framework of the plan involves accelerating bureaucratic processes and revising and easing regulations to enable technology companies to more easily develop infrastructure and innovation.

The Action Plan consists of three main parts: accelerating AI innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading in global AI security and diplomacy. The first section states that open-source or auditable models will be encouraged for internal government use. It is known that since the beginning of Trump’s second term, open-source AI models have begun gaining prominence. On the other hand, xAI’s registration of its Grok-1.5 model with NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in accordance with the Action Plan, and its selection as the foundation for the already pre-negotiated $200 million “Grok for Gov” project, reveals close coordination between the company and the government. Musk’s advocacy for reducing government spending under the “DOGE” (Department of Government Efficiency) rhetoric makes it highly significant that his company is securing such a large government contract.

Although President Trump and Musk’s paths diverged in recent months, it is evident in various parts of the Action Plan that Musk’s approach has been adopted. The emphasis on freedom of expression in the first section aligns with Musk’s rhetoric and Grok’s performance. Similarly, the plan’s call in the same section to eliminate “ideological bias” in AI, prioritize neutral language models, and elevate “American values” constitutes both a campaign against the previous administration’s “woke ideology” and the ethical and cultural dimension of the struggle against China. Removing woke ideology from AI targets domestic concerns and reflects a long-standing pressure by the Trump administration on technology companies. Although Musk has clashed with the administration, his ideas are now visibly in power. It is clear that his own AI company also benefits from the new regulatory environment.

In January, Trump announced the Stargate project alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Such announcements are viewed as mutually beneficial by both Trump and private-sector actors. For Trump, these steps reinforce his image as a “deal-maker,” while for the companies involved, they mean easier bypassing of bureaucratic obstacles and faster implementation.

This massive $50 billion initiative, planned through a collaboration between OpenAI, Microsoft, Oracle, and SoftBank, aims to build a network of data centers to support AI projects. The second section of the Action Plan, titled “Building American AI Infrastructure,” provides a legal framework for projects like Stargate and permits the relaxation of environmental regulations to streamline bureaucratic processes. For example, the document proposes loosening laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, and creating special exemptions for data centers. These privileges, as outlined in the document, are seen as both a guarantee of security and a means to open the path for investments that will stimulate domestic economic activity.

On the other hand, these aggressive growth policies carry certain risks. It is well known that data centers demand substantial energy. For instance, a standard AI data center consumes approximately as much electricity as 100,000 homes according to Deloitte. According to the International Energy Agency’s forecast, by 2030, data centers alone will consume as much electricity as Japan does today. This situation clearly indicates that serious environmental costs will arise in the future.

One of the key issues in the Action Plan is the GPU bottleneck in AI development. It is well known that Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang play a pivotal role in shaping the United States’ semiconductor export policies. News reports indicated that Trump’s administration lifted the ban on exporting Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China as a result of Huang’s intense lobbying efforts and a personal meeting with the president.

The Action Plan, while permitting continued sales to China, also aims to strengthen export controls and close loopholes in existing regulations. Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick’s statement captures the essence of America’s position:

“Our goal is to sell enough products to China to make its developers dependent on the American technology ecosystem while ensuring we remain at least one step ahead of what China can develop.”^【1】

In this way, Nvidia will continue selling GPUs to grow its business while reserving its most advanced products for the domestic market only, thereby ensuring American leadership in AI technology by withholding exports to China. While this stance appears profitable for Nvidia, Trump’s authorization to sell H20 chips has sparked debate among Republicans. Recently, a group of 20 national security experts wrote a warning letter evaluating the decision as a strategic error. The experts argue that these chips are critical to enhancing China’s AI capabilities in both civilian and military domains, and that this decision is not merely a commercial matter but a matter of national security.

America’s 2025 Artificial Intelligence Action Plan can be viewed as an expression of a competitive posture. Of course, interpreting this plan solely through the lens of personal interests and lobbying activities of figures such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Jensen Huang would overlook the broader picture. Yet it is undeniable that these three individuals and the corporations they represent are the primary actors shaping the plan’s spirit, defining its goals, and implementing its provisions.

This new era signals a symbiotic alliance in which the boundaries between Silicon Valley and the White House are increasingly blurred, and national strategy is intertwined with the commercial objectives of technology giants. While only time will reveal the ultimate outcomes, it is clear that this aggressive, private-sector-driven approach will not only intensify the U.S.-China technology race but also profoundly shape the future of artificial intelligence.

Author: Emirhan Kartal.