Microsoft's CEO discusses Trump and Musk, committing to a $80 billion investment in AI data centers worldwide.

Microsoft (MSFT.US) CEO Satya Nadella discussed artificial intelligence and cybersecurity with US president-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, becoming the latest tech industry leader to offer advice to the new government. The US company said in a statement that the conversation covered a range of topics, including Microsoft's commitment to invest $80bn globally to build artificial intelligence data centres, with more than $50bn to be spent in the US to create jobs. Microsoft president Brad Smith and Trump's running mate, JD Vance, attended the meeting. The tech giants have been trying to mend fences with the president since his November victory, despite the frequent clashes between the two sides during his first term. Many went to Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect's Florida estate, where Mr Trump and Mr Musk held a series of private meetings and dinners to discuss plans for the next term. Mr Smith warned the incoming Trump administration against “draconian regulation” of artificial intelligence. “The most important public policy priority for the US should be to ensure that the private sector in the US continues to thrive,” he wrote this month. The US needs “a pragmatic export control policy that can protect the strong security of AI components in trusted data centres while providing the ability for US companies to rapidly expand and provide reliable supply sources for many of our allies and friends,” he wrote. Cloud infrastructure providers such as Microsoft and Amazon (AMZN.US) have been racing to expand computing capacity by building new data centres. Microsoft's capital expenditure in the year to June 2024 was more than $50bn, the vast majority of which was related to the construction of server farms to meet demand for AI services. Most of the spending on data centres goes on high-performance chips produced by companies such as Nvidia (NVDA.US) and infrastructure providers such as Dell Technologies (DELL.US). The large AI server farms require a lot of power, prompting Microsoft to agree to restart a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, which suffered a notorious partial meltdown in 1979. Amazon and Google have also signed nuclear deals.