The initial deal behind the American AI boom seems to be: private investors would help finance it, taking on the risk; private companies would initially own the benefits of the breakthroughs, then distribute them to public markets later; and the government would help regulate the industry after the fact. In China, by contrast, the deal is that companies still have to compete for investment and customers, while the government provides the compute.
That bargain is showing signs of collapse — on the U.S. side. As costs soar, Chinese competitors gain ground and Washington increasingly considers AI to be a national-security asset, President Donald Trump is considering taking a governmental stake into AI companies. While both the populist left and the right, and the AI companies themselves, have lauded the proposal, one person isn’t cheering: Billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
