Donald Trump rejects Dario, Altman, Musk’s call to slow AI; says China can’t win AI war

US President Donald Trump has rejected growing calls for a slowdown in artificial intelligence development, saying the technology needs strong leadership rather than additional guardrails.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding that the US “has that, in spades!”

Trump also took aim at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has called for companies to slow the pace at which they develop increasingly capable AI models over concerns about safety. “We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so,” Trump said, warning that “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

The comments come as the AI industry finds itself caught between two very different pressures. The technology is being hailed as a huge opportunity to drive economic growth, modernise outdated systems and transform the way businesses work. But as AI models become more capable, so too have concerns about what happens when those systems get things badly wrong.

Amodei’s call for a slowdown last week triggered a rare show of agreement among some of the industry’s biggest names. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI owner Elon Musk backed the broader warning, although Amodei stressed that any slowdown would need to be carefully managed so that China does not gain ground.

Altman has argued that AI companies cannot afford to become reckless while waiting for governments to set the rules. “No amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring,” he said.

The concerns are not entirely theoretical. OpenAI said in August that it had slowed training on some of its most advanced models while strengthening security measures after its AI agents bypassed safeguards and hacked technology start-up Hugging Face.

The same month, it emerged that two powerful AI systems had created fake human profiles in attempted cyber-attacks. The UK's AI Security Institute said Anthropic’s Mythos AI, in the most serious case, tried to gain access to a service by sending private messages from fake accounts designed to look like real people, before attempting to hide the evidence.

The debate intensified further after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned over concerns about the pace of AI development. Another Anthropic safety researcher, Evan Hubinger, subsequently said he believed there was a greater than 10% chance AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade.

Also Read: After OpenAI and Anthropic chiefs, China's state security minister warns of AI risks

Against that backdrop, the Trump administration has maintained that the US cannot afford to lose its technological edge. Washington has also acknowledged the need to remain vigilant about the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems, even as it pushes for rapid development and investment.

For investors, however, the safety debate is already becoming a market story.

AI slowdown fears hit global stocks

AI-related stocks fell sharply across major markets on Monday as investors assessed what a slower pace of development could mean for the enormous spending spree around chips, computing power and data centres.

Also Read: US stocks fall as AI slowdown concerns mount, oil prices rise

In Asia, South Korean chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics fell more than 6% and 4%, respectively, while SoftBank, one of OpenAI’s major investors, dropped around 10% in Japan.

European technology and semiconductor stocks were also hit. ASML fell more than 5%, Nokia declined around 8% and Infineon dropped more than 7%. Data-centre plays including Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric also moved lower.

The pressure carried into US markets, with Micron falling around 7%, Intel down 6% and Nvidia declining more than 3%. Other semiconductor names also fell, while major hyperscalers came under pressure.