“This is money that normally would have gone to China,” Trump proclaimed on Tuesday while unveiling Stargate, an artificial intelligence project that will cost $500 billion, according to its participants OpenAI, Softbank, Oracle and MGX. It was another indication that keeping ahead of Beijing on AI is a priority of the Trump administration. But in his bid to save TikTok, the video app that was briefly banned in the US under a law that came into effect the day before Trump entered office, the president appears much more relaxed about China.
One of Donald Trump’s first acts as US president was to postpone enforcement of the ban on TikTok for 75 days, allowing more time for a potential sale to American owners. This is a stark contrast to his first term as president, where he sought to outlaw the app on national security grounds.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump questioned whether it mattered that China could conduct espionage on TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
Trump pointed out that many other things in the US were made by China, and asked, “Is it important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids, watching crazy videos?”
Trump credits TikTok with helping him reach younger voters. But another reason he may have his eyes on China when it comes to AI, and his eyes firmly shut when it comes to TikTok, lies with Jeff Yass, a friend of Trump’s and a major Conservative Party donor.
The New York Times has reported that Yass’s Susquehanna Investment Group holds a 15 percent stake in ByteDance, while Yass himself owns 7 percent.
To complicate matters further, Chinese media Late Post reported on Thursday that ByteDance is also wading into advanced AI development, the kind to rival the likes of OpenAI and Stargate, with a new project called Seed Edge.
Meanwhile, Trump shrugged off criticism of Stargate from close ally Elon Musk, who continues to say that OpenAI and its partners cannot afford the investment.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that the criticism stemmed from the fact that Musk “hates one of the people” involved.
That person is without doubt Sam Altman, with whom Elon Musk founded OpenAI before leaving amid controversy in 2018. A California court next month will hear arguments in an antitrust lawsuit Musk has brought against OpenAI.
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