‘An existential threat’: For Silicon Valley, falling behind in AI is a bigger threat than tariffs

New York —

If there’s one thing the White House, Wall Street and Silicon Valley can agree on, it’s that artificial intelligence is a top priority.

Tech giants are pouring billions into new data centers and infrastructure to support the technology. The White House came out with an AI action plan in July to boost America’s leadership in the space, underscoring the tech’s importance to the administration. Wall Street keeps pushing AI-related stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) to new records.

But President Donald Trump’s trade war has raised questions about whether the administration’s policies could work against its big AI push. Certain tariffs could raise the costs of materials and components necessary to support those AI models.

For example, the president said on August 6 that he would iss