The Trump administration is preparing a full-court press on artificial intelligence, with a major policy address scheduled for July 23 titled “Winning the AI Race.” It's expected to be Trump's most detailed take on the technology to date. The event is backed by White House AI and crypto advisor David Sacks and his All-In podcast co-hosts. Behind the scenes, a sweeping AI action plan is nearing completion—built with heavy industry input—and could soon be cemented by executive order. The blueprint focuses on cutting red tape, expanding energy access for data centers, and getting federal buy-in on a more streamlined, pro-growth regulatory regime.
One of the headline shifts: the U.S. now plans to allow AI chipmakers to resume some exports to China. That includes Nvidia (NVDA, Financial)'s H20 chips, a move seen as a significant win for CEO Jensen Huang, who has been openly critical of prior export bans. Huang met privately with Trump in Washington last week, where discussions reportedly focused on boosting U.S. AI competitiveness. For Nvidia and AMD, this could reopen a multi-billion-dollar channel that had been shut off earlier this year. The reversal comes amid growing concern over China's rapid AI development—highlighted by DeepSeek's surprisingly cheap R1 model that raised eyebrows across Wall Street in January.
Energy is also taking center stage. With AI data centers projected to more than double their share of U.S. electricity demand by 2035—from 3.5% to 8.6%—the Trump team is calling for expanded use of coal, gas, and nuclear power. Earlier this year, Trump helped broker a $100 billion data center investment involving SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI. Meanwhile, a controversial bid to preempt state AI laws for a decade was ultimately stripped from the recent tax package, but not before it gained vocal support from tech investors like Marc Andreessen and Joe Lonsdale. Taken together, Trump's AI agenda is shaping up to be aggressive, industry-led, and laser-focused on outpacing China.
