A month after President Donald Trump ordered that the term "super intelligence" replace artificial intelligence within executive branch departments and agencies, his leading tech allies — Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — followed suit on earnings calls. Their fellow tech CEOs were less eager to do the same.
Trump's declaration took place on Sept. 29, while he was hosting an AI luncheon at the White House for industry leaders. At the time, he was working to ensure the growth of AI in the U.S. with limited regulations. The president this week announced on Truth Social that he's banning the use of AI or artificial intelligence in "all relevant documents" and "everything else."
SpaceX and Tesla adhered to Trump's wishes on earnings calls last week after Musk, earlier in October, changed the name of his rocket company's AI division to SpaceXSI. Speaking on Tesla's call about his work on humanoid robots, Musk said, "Some of them look very impressive, but they're not really using any kind of advanced AI or SI."
Zuckerberg was equally compliant on Meta's earnings call on Oct. 21, emphasizing his company's "goal of delivering personal superintelligence to everyone." However, Meta was already using the term, having created a unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs last year.
While Musk and Zuckerberg have been perhaps the fiercest supporters of the Trump administration among tech's CEOs, they're by no means outliers. Leaders of all the tech giants have contributed to Trump's inauguration festivities or his plan for the White House ballroom, and some have been intentional about getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that the president opposed.
But for now at least, they're holding out when it comes to eliminating the term AI.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy peppered his call with use of AI on Thursday, uttering the acronym well over a dozen times in his introductory remarks. A day earlier, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said one of the company's three points of focus is "designing AI to empower people." And Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was seconds into his quarterly earnings commentary when he said the search giant's "AI investments are driving increased usage and overall user growth."
Trump's attempted rebrand comes just ahead of the midterm elections next week, with the Republican Party in jeopardy of losing control of both the House and Senate. Trump's job approval has been dropping and his economic approval rating just hit an all-time low, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey released last week.
That's not to suggest tech execs sticking with "AI" on this week's earnings calls are openly defying the president. Trump's preferred term is seeping into other correspondence and documents. Microsoft's annual report filed last week included eight mentions of super intelligence, starting at the top of the letter to shareholders.
"For Microsoft, the central question as we enter this Super Intelligence era is not just how big the opportunity becomes, but how we deliver the real-world outcomes that every country, community, and company demands and deserves," Nadella wrote.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who didn't attend Trump's September lunch, used SI alongside AI during his company's earnings call last week. Krishna said, "technology innovation in both hybrid infrastructure and super intelligence is leading to better business performance," adding that IBM is advancing as a "software-led hybrid cloud and AI platform company."
Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of chipmaker Intel, said on Thursday the supply shortage the chip industry is navigating has been "driven by the unprecedented demand for super intelligence."
Some in the tech industry have been explicit in their support of Trump's terminology ahead of their forthcoming earnings reports next month.
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora repeatedly referred to SI on CNBC, and posted on X on Sept. 30, "The meeting at the WH on SI was an epic moment."
Then there's Nvidia's Jensen Huang, who runs the world's most valuable company and the chipmaker that's powered much of the AI boom. Along with Musk and Zuckerberg, Huang has been one of Trump's most vocal supporters in tech and the president's top ally on the AI safety debate.
Like Arora, Huang took to X after last month's AI meeting to praise the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence."
"Super Intelligence offers an extraordinary opportunity to advance discovery, productivity, security, health, and prosperity," Huang wrote. "The future of Super Intelligence will be shaped not only by what it can do, but by the confidence it earns."
