US Senate Commerce Committee holds hearing on AI competitiveness with Sam Altman

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, chaired by Ted Cruz, held a hearing titled “Winning the AI Race: Strengthening U.S. Capabilities in Computing and Innovation,” with testimony from OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Microsoft president Brad Smith, AMD chief executive Lisa Su and CoreWeave chief executive Michael Intrator.

Altman argued that proposals requiring government pre-approval or vetting of AI systems before release would be “disastrous” for the United States’ position in the field, calling instead for “sensible regulation that does not slow us down.” Su emphasised open ecosystems, domestic chip manufacturing and export controls calibrated to balance national security against global adoption of American technology. Intrator focused on infrastructure constraints — energy access, permitting reform and stable capital investment — as the binding limits on US AI buildout, while Smith framed the challenge around faster permitting, a larger skilled workforce including electricians, and exporting American AI systems abroad with appropriate safeguards rather than restricting their reach.

The hearing’s framing — that the central risk was falling behind China rather than deploying AI too quickly — represented a shift in tone from earlier congressional engagement with the industry, including hearings in 2023 where some of the same executives had spoken more openly about the case for regulation. By mid-2025, industry testimony to Congress consistently argued that infrastructure and light-touch rules, not pre-deployment vetting, were what US AI competitiveness required.