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AI United States

Trump AI Czar Says 'No Federal Bailout For AI' After OpenAI CFO's Comments (cnbc.com) 78

Venture capitalist David Sacks, who is serving as President Donald Trump's AI and crypto czar, said Thursday that there will be "no federal bailout for AI." From a report: "The U.S. has at least 5 major frontier model companies. If one fails, others will take its place," Sacks wrote in a post on X. Sacks' comments came after OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said Wednesday that the startup wants to establish an ecosystem of private equity, banks and a federal "backstop" or "guarantee" that could help the company finance its infrastructure investments.

She softened her stance later in a LinkedIn post and said OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure commitments. She said her use of the word "backstop" clouded her point. [...] Sacks said the Trump administration does want to make permitting and power generation easier, and that the goal is to facilitate rapid infrastructure buildouts without raising residential electricity rates. "To give benefit of the doubt, I don't think anyone was actually asking for a bailout. (That would be ridiculous.)," he wrote.

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Trump AI Czar Says 'No Federal Bailout For AI' After OpenAI CFO's Comments

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  • Bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @02:36PM (#65778140)
    It's not the AI companies to get the bail out it's the banks that overextended themselves loaning to the AI companies.

    Unless Americans get enough balls to nationalize Banks when they collapse so that they don't take the whole economy down with them then those banks are too big to fail and they can take on crazy high risk loans and make you pay for them.

    And I guarantee you when they collapse you will open up your wallet and your 401k and give them everything because the alternative is to nationalize the banks and that's socialism. And TV will make you so afraid of socialism that they don't even need the rob you you'll follow over yourself to give them your money just like they did in 2008.

    We are hostages with Stockholm syndrome.
    • Re:Bullshit (Score:4, Interesting)

      by dbialac ( 320955 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @02:54PM (#65778194)
      Not everything requires nationalization and we don't need to nationalize banks. We do need to bust them into much smaller entities so they are no longer too big to fail. We also need to restore past regulations so they can't do stupid things that lead to failure.
      • Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @02:58PM (#65778206)

        I agree with both of you, in that either nationalization or trust-busting would solve this recurring problem. Guess which one's going to happen?

        You guessed it: nothing!

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by serafean ( 4896143 )

        Having a bank is now a requirement for life, and thus it should be socialized. - The people should have control.

        Whether that is done by nationalizing, or keeping them small enough so that new players have a chance is the discussion to have.

      • You don't nationalize the banks immediately. When they crash the economy that's when you nationalize them.

        What you should be doing is heavily regulating the banks and the stock market in order to prevent those crashes in the first place. Ask any serious economist and they will tell you in detail the regulations and laws need it to stop the constant boom and bust cycle the cost is all our jobs. It's all well understood because it's all shit we figured out after the Great depression. We just keep repealin
        • You don't nationalize the banks immediately. When they crash the economy that's when you nationalize them. What you should be doing is heavily regulating the banks and the stock market in order to prevent those crashes in the first place. Ask any serious economist and they will tell you in detail the regulations and laws need it to stop the constant boom and bust cycle the cost is all our jobs. It's all well understood because it's all shit we figured out after the Great depression. We just keep repealing those laws because we're stupid and we don't know what a fucking chesterton's fence is. Several countries in the wake of 2008 nationalized their Banks and then slowly privatize them again. They came out of the crash much faster and in much better condition. Nationalization is something you do when you have lost control of your banking system and the people who are in control are using that system against you. Basically when you are in a hostage situation you take the gun away from the terrorist. Then when everything comes down you throw the terrorist in prison and put somebody else in charge of the building you just stormed who isn't a terrorist. What we did instead was given to all of that terrorists demands and then some.

          The terrorists own the building and all the staff. The government officials that should be regulating Wall Street and the Bank (and businesses and...) are owned outright by those same Wall Street and Bank (and business and...) folks that cause the boom bust cycles in the first place. So when they screw the pooch and another bust comes crashing over society, the very first thing that happens is the handlers inform the owned government officials that they need to raid the taxpayer coffers to bail them out. "T

        • We're sweating bullets over the President trying to exert control over the Fed, and you want to nationalize the fucking banks?

          Fucking brilliant.
    • Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)

      by deKernel ( 65640 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @03:09PM (#65778232)

      Sorry, but the only person here with Stockholm's Syndrome is you. You are held hostage to your failed beliefs that communism and socialism are the only way forward when history has shown that they simply lead to authoritarianism.

      • I'm genuinely curious what you're Way Forward is. Is it the naive belief that the billionaires are going to completely ignore their dependency on consumers and employees? I bring that up just in case you're Way Forward is to just assume everything is always going to work out and stay the same and that you don't have to think about the future.

        I mean you are welcome to ignore technological unemployment, trillions of dollars of negative Financial impacts from climate change, the growing influence of money
      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        So Sweden is some sort of authoritarian hell hole in your book? That's odd, the socialist Scandinavian countries consistently are in the top of the rankings for having the happiest populations. Shouldn't they be miserable and poor? I'm so confused . . .

        • Re: Bullshit (Score:4, Interesting)

          by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @05:55PM (#65778612)

          Except they're not socialist. They're very much market driven, arguably more so than the united states is. It's kind of funny because people like Bernie keep talking about them as if they are, and wants us to be more like what he thinks they are.

          You brought up Sweden, so let's go with that. You know Sweden relies largely upon the free market for it's education system? They already have a school voucher system, and it seems to work pretty well. I think it's a great idea. What do you think?

          Or is this one of those things where you're thinking about welfare when the word "socialism" comes out of your mouth. If so don't worry, you're not alone, most progressives use the two interchangeably even though they have very different meanings. Probably also worth mentioning that people who actually understand socialism generally don't look favorably upon welfare spending, particularly Marx and Engels.

          But Sweden actually has the high ground there as well. You see, the US spends a lot more of its GDP on welfare programs than Sweden does.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          Probably also worth mentioning that they don't have a concept of a minimum wage. So yeah, I agree, it wouldn't hurt for us to be a bit more like Sweden.

        • It helps 99% of them are the same culture, speak the same language, and have the same religion. Oh and the population of any of those Scandinavian countries is less then NYC. Let's not even talk about Norway's abundant natural resources. Must be nice to have fewer then 10 million citizens but have a huge oil reserve AND geography that allows them to go green while exporting all that oil.

          That REALLY compares to USA with 330 million people spread out on an entire continent.

          Comparing those countries to USA is

      • What do you call the current day administration?

      • Re:Bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)

        by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @12:15AM (#65779340)

        Sorry, but the only person here with Stockholm's Syndrome is you. You are held hostage to your failed beliefs that communism and socialism are the only way forward when history has shown that they simply lead to authoritarianism.

        Well they sure as hell aren't when we get so intellectually lazy we dub anything to the right of ghengis khan "COMMUNISM".

        Is Keynsianism too "communist" for you? Theres a solid and battle tested set of principles that build wealth while protecting the little guys.

        If it is, then maybe just follow Adam Smiths advice and regulate capitalism in the interest of the common man. Is Adam Smith too communist for you?

        What IS your baseline here beyond vapid libertarian-ish slogans?

  • Bankruptcy? (Score:4, Funny)

    by dbialac ( 320955 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @02:37PM (#65778142)
    Can't AI just figure out a solution to avoid bankruptcy in the first place?
    • We don't need AI for that we figured it out almost a hundred years ago during the Great depression.

      We need voters to stop freaking out over stupid little culture war and moral panics and focus on the economy demanding strong regulation of Banks and Wall Street using already understood principles.

      And we need a country of voters that know what a fucking chesterton's fence is.
  • I 100% believe they won't bail out the industry as a whole.

    I also 100% believe they would "take a stake" in particular companies in return for... certain considerations.

    • by Mordain ( 204988 )

      If AI is adopted by the Pentagon, which it certainly has (see Palantir, etc.) then they will rescue their contractors if need be. Usually they don't have too since the contracts are usually good enough to keep suppliers afloat, but if the market fallout is bad enough that it will hamper the overall execution of what they need, they will open the purse strings (see Intel)

      • by abulafia ( 7826 )
        I was pointing to the historically anomalous mercantile streak this regime has.

        Explicitly taking stakes in private companies is a lot more problematic than a lot of people seem to think.

        Republicans used to claim 'picking winners and losers' was a bad thing.

        • Republicans mean anyone but them picking winners and losers is a bad thing. When they do it it's a good thing. By definition, if they do it it's good and legal and patriotic. And heroic. And benevolent. Nixon said that out loud, but there was still enough democracy to make him pay for being a criminal. Bush/Cheney rewrote the rules even further and Trump/Vance are doin whatever they want now with impunity.

  • by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @02:55PM (#65778202)
    Read about "toxic optimism" in a local news article about a psychiatrist. It was an article about parenting, but when I read all the euforic AI news articles, I would argue most of them are... toxic optimism. Looks like the peak of optimism is over and people start thinking about damage control. About time.
  • "...the goal is to facilitate rapid infrastructure buildouts without raising residential electricity rates."

    If infrastructure buildouts are needed to power AI why is it merely a "goal" to avoid raising residential electric rates? Why should the society pay even a penny for electric wastefully consumed by billionaire's companies?

  • by devslash0 ( 4203435 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @03:53PM (#65778344)

    In fact, it's a low enough number that failing of one AI giant, can make stocks and shares of other companies take a quick tumble, too. Market panic.

    • n fact, it's a low enough number that failing of one AI giant, can make stocks and shares of other companies take a quick tumble, too. Market panic.

      Who cares? The people that invested unwisely get wiped out and the people who didn't carry on as if nothing ever happened. Gambling is the gambler's problem, not mine.

  • "no federal bailout for AI."

    Why should anyone bail their asses out, especially the average American?

    These people are burning money by the truckload, but because their business 'model' sucks and they've dug themselves into a hole, someone is supposed to come along and throw MORE free money into their craptastic 'business'?

    Someone make this make sense, because I can't do it.

    So, in as few words as possible, why should anyone bail them out?

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Why should anyone bail their asses out

      Because important people who finance political campaigns might lose money, and of course that's no longer allowed.

      • Because important people who finance political campaigns might lose money, and of course that's no longer allowed.

        Ahhh, okay, now I understand.

  • by cstacy ( 534252 )

    Government says ‘no federal bailout for AI’

    Translation:"AI is too big to fail, and we are already planning on bailing out those trillionaires."

  • Govt knows this is about to POP in a really bad way. They're making sure they don't get stick in the same situation when they had to bail out the banks during 2008.
    • by evanh ( 627108 )

      First poster, rsilvergun, is right though. These companies like OpenAI aren't the ones to suffer from this. And they know it. When they go belly up, it's all the investors that'll loose their shirts. Sadly, that's every Joe average's retirement funds.

      The hype reaches out and takes from all. :(

      • by evanh ( 627108 )

        How's the saying go? Privatise the poor, socialise the rich.

        It's the ultimate in hypocrisy.

      • by cstacy ( 534252 )

        First poster, rsilvergun, is right though.

        I am the first poster, and I do not know what an "rsilvergun" is. (Maybe I am misreading the syntax, and you are responding to and ddressing "rsilvergun", rather than identifying eir as the "first poster"?) Or perhaps you mean the second poster, who brought up banks, the subject which has dominated the thread.

        If you are indeed referring to my post, I guess it's nice to know there is now one person who agrees with me....

  • Coming from a guy named Sacks.
  • Bringing the topic of "Failed AI company bailouts" to the federal government and national level news is a sign that it is a concern for both and the elites.

    What's the replacement if there is an AI bust? If there is no replacement hype technology, how are they going to pump up the economy?

    Even if interest rates go to 0, such as, in the post-2008 financial crisis, how many of the US population will have enough to buy homes or even be interested in buying a home when deflation makes them 2% or more cheaper e

    • by cstacy ( 534252 )

      What's the replacement if there is an AI bust? If there is no replacement hype technology, how are they going to pump up the economy?

      The two spends from the gaztrillion investments are the production of the AI chips, and the clouds (and power plants) to run them. Maybe the answer will be to repurpose those for something that (a) works and (b) is profitable. Besides the bogus LLM crap that is driving all this nonsense, there are actual AI applications that can use that infrastructure. Maybe there will be enough of that to take over. Although one wonders why, if that could be true, it isn't what has created this situation. Maybe it's just

    • Modern monetary theory of infinite borrowing and government spending with 0 percent interest rates won't stimulate the economy.

      Look, MMT really annoys me in its attempt to rebrand Keynesian fiscal stimulus as some kind of magical new discovery, but COVID certainly demonstrated that you can boost an economy in freefall if you just pour enormous amount of fiscal stimulus into it.

      I mean, even the Neoliberal prophet Friedman was unequivocal about how the govt can create any amount of inflation if it really really wants too (helicopter money).

      Now, whether that's what you should do, or the exact details of how you do it, or what the end

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