Musk and Zuckerberg adopt Trump's 'super intelligence' label on earnings calls
The tech leaders followed the president's directive one month later, while peers like Amazon's Andy Jassy continued to use the term AI in their remarks.
By Trevor Wilson ·
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Sept. 29 replacing the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence across federal agencies. One month later, two of his most prominent allies in the tech sector adopted the new terminology during their company earnings calls.
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg aligned with the presidential directive, while other major technology executives largely retained the older term. This divergence occurred as Trump prepared for the midterm elections scheduled for next week.
During Tesla's earnings call, Musk discussed his work on humanoid robots. He stated, 'Some of them look very impressive, but they're not really using any kind of advanced AI or SI.' Musk had previously changed the name of his rocket company's AI division to SpaceXSI earlier in October.
Mark Zuckerberg also used the new terminology during Meta's earnings call on Oct. 21. He described the company's goal as delivering personal superintelligence to everyone. Meta had already established a unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs the previous year, making the terminology shift less abrupt for that specific organization.
Other CEOs were less immediate in their adoption. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy used the acronym AI more than a dozen times during his introductory remarks on Thursday. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that one focus is designing AI to empower people. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai referenced AI investments in the first seconds of his quarterly commentary.
The timing of the rebrand coincides with a period of declining political capital for the administration. The latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey released last week showed Trump's economic approval rating hitting an all-time low. Republicans face the risk of losing control of both the House and Senate in the upcoming elections.
Despite the mixed signals on earnings calls, the new term is appearing in corporate documents. Microsoft's annual report filed last week mentioned super intelligence eight times. CEO Satya Nadella wrote in the letter to shareholders that the central question entering this era is how to deliver real-world outcomes.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna used both terms during his earnings call, citing technology innovation in hybrid infrastructure and super intelligence. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan attributed supply shortages to demand for super intelligence. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised the White House Accord on Super Intelligence on X, calling it an extraordinary opportunity for discovery and productivity.
Source: CNBC
