Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang’s Trump Plea to Invest in AI

Take a copy of the Washington Post, and you’re likely to come across Alexandr Wang’s full-page ad. The CEO of Scale AI took out the ad asking the Trump administration to invest more in AI.

Wang was present at Trump’s inauguration on Monday, like many other tech CEOs. On the X Platform he posted a copy of the ad, which reads “Dear President Trump, America must win the AI War.” The CEO is “certain this Administration has the AI muscle to keep us ahead of China.” In line with that, he outlined several broad steps to win what he considers an “AI war” against China. 

With Scale AI worth over $13 billion, Wang wants the U.S. government to emulate tech giants by spending more on data and computing. Additionally, he wants the U.S. to review its own regulations to ensure plenty of AI-related jobs in the future.

To be AI ready by 2027, Wang recommends that federal agencies should launch an “aggressive” plan for cheap electricity that can be consumed by AI-centric data centers. He also proposed ideas on how to implement some AI safety measures.

More friendly regulations could benefit companies like Scale AI, which already counts the U.S. government as a customer and is reportedly part of plans for a U.S. defense startup consortium. This could also lead to increased AI-related jobs and less reliance on contract workers.

Wang believes that these recommendations will form part of an effort to keep the U.S. ahead of China in AI. “We are in a new kind of technological arms race,” his letter states. Further, “the Chinese government is investing in AI at an unprecedented pace.” 

Chinese models like DeepSeek have been getting attention for their strong performance across several industry benchmarks. Wang’s letter says China is now catching up to the U.S. after being at least a year behind, sentiments shared by other AI leaders. However, not everyone is okay with Wang’s framing of U.S.-China AI competition as a “war.”

According to Emmett Shear, the ex-Twitch CEO, and OpenAI’s CEO, “This is a horrible framing – we are not at war. We are all in this together and if we make AI development into a war we are likely to all die.” 

While the Trump administration has yet to respond to the open letter, it has already acted on an AI topic by revoking its predecessor’s executive order on AI, which created guidance for companies to help correct flaws and biases in their models.