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Here’s all the AI stuff in Trump’s tax bill

Over $2 billion is allocated to deploying AI for nuclear weapons programs, autonomous underwater drones, and sovereign AI models.

Jon Keegan

Yesterday the Senate passed President Trump’s massive tax bill, and today it heads to the House, where it faces an uncertain future.

The text of the bill is loooong — it spans 870 pages as a PDF and is full of allocations of federal dollars for Trump’s priorities, including over $2 billion for AI programs for defense, energy, and homeland security.

Top AI insiders might hold a lot of sway in this administration, but tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, and OpenAI did suffer a major loss yesterday when a key provision to halt all state-level AI regulation for a decade was removed from the bill.

Things could change in the House, but let’s take a look at all the AI-related things that made it through the Senate.

Defense

💣 Resources for scaling low-cost weapons into production

 💻 Improving efficiency and cybersecurity

  • $200,000,000 for the deployment of automation and artificial intelligence to accelerate the audits of the financial statements of the Department of Defense

☢️ Enhancement of resources for nuclear forces

  • $115,000,000 for accelerating nuclear national security missions through artificial intelligence

⛴️ Enhancement of Department of Defense resources for shipbuilding

  • $188,360,000 for the development and testing of maritime robotic autonomous systems and enabling technologies

  • $174,000,000 for the development of a Test Resource Management Center robotic autonomous systems proving ground

  • $200,000,000 for the development, procurement, and integration of mass-producible autonomous underwater munitions

  • $500,000,000 to prevent delays in delivery of attritable autonomous military capabilities

  • $75,000,000 to contract the services of, acquire, or procure autonomous maritime systems

Energy

🤖 Transformational artificial AI models ($150 million)

  • “American science cloud”: a system of US government, academic, and private sector programs and infrastructures utilizing cloud computing technologies to facilitate and support scientific research, data sharing, and computational analysis across various disciplines while ensuring compliance with applicable legal, regulatory, and privacy standards

  • Mobilize National Laboratories to partner with industry sectors within the United States to curate the scientific data of the Department of Energy across the National Laboratory complex so that the data is structured, cleaned, and preprocessed in a way that makes it suitable for use in artificial intelligence and machine learning models

  • Initiate seed efforts for self-improving artificial intelligence models for science and engineering

Homeland Security

🚔 Border security, technology, and screening

  • $168,000,000 for procurement and integration of new nonintrusive inspection equipment and associated civil works, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other innovative technologies, as well as other mission support, to combat the entry or exit of illicit narcotics at ports of entry and along the southwest, northern, and maritime borders

Rural hospitals

🏥 Rural health transformation program ($50 billion)

  • Providing training and technical assistance for the development and adoption of technology-enabled solutions that improve care delivery in rural hospitals, including remote monitoring, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies

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Intel romps amid reported attempt to poach a 21-year Taiwan Semiconductor veteran

A report in the Taiwanese press that Intel is attempting to recruit a recently retired top Taiwan Semiconductor executive, Wei-Jen Lo, to lead R&D at Intel’s troubled foundry division may account for the bump in Intel shares Tuesday, one analyst told us.

A synopsis of the report from technology analysis and news outlet TrendForce News notes:

“If confirmed, the move could have significant implications for TSMC and the broader Taiwanese semiconductor industry, especially as Intel aggressively expands its foundry business with support from Washington and backing from tech giants like NVIDIA and SoftBank, the report adds.”

But some skepticism about Lo, 75 years old, returning to Intel, where he worked before joining TSMC in 2004, is also warranted, TrendForce says:

“Industry insiders cited by the report say it is unlikely he would join Intel again, given TSMC’s non-compete rules, Intel’s status as a direct competitor, Lo’s advanced age, health considerations, and his long-standing loyalty to TSMC founder Morris Chang. On the other hand, some industry observers warn that Lo, a U.S. citizen, would be difficult for TSMC to restrict, even with non-compete clauses.”

Intel shares have doubled over the last three months, since the US government took a 10% stake in the company in August. Intel is the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 over that period.

“If confirmed, the move could have significant implications for TSMC and the broader Taiwanese semiconductor industry, especially as Intel aggressively expands its foundry business with support from Washington and backing from tech giants like NVIDIA and SoftBank, the report adds.”

But some skepticism about Lo, 75 years old, returning to Intel, where he worked before joining TSMC in 2004, is also warranted, TrendForce says:

“Industry insiders cited by the report say it is unlikely he would join Intel again, given TSMC’s non-compete rules, Intel’s status as a direct competitor, Lo’s advanced age, health considerations, and his long-standing loyalty to TSMC founder Morris Chang. On the other hand, some industry observers warn that Lo, a U.S. citizen, would be difficult for TSMC to restrict, even with non-compete clauses.”

Intel shares have doubled over the last three months, since the US government took a 10% stake in the company in August. Intel is the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 over that period.

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AI computing demand is generating huge revenue streams for hyperscalers, but the market is closely watching the pace of growth, which is slowing.

tech

Nokia surges as Nvidia invests $1 billion in company, a 2.9% stake

Nvidia is taking a 2.9% stake in Nokia, as the Finnish mobile networking company has successfully pivoted to AI and data center technology.

In a press release announcing the deal, Nokia said:

“Nokia intends to accelerate development of Nokia’s 5G & 6G RAN software to run on NVIDIA’s architecture and will make investments to drive Nokia’s strategic goal of increasing its presence in the AI & Cloud market with data center aligned networking solutions within its Network Infrastructure business. Nokia and NVIDIA have agreed to collaborate on AI networking solutions and explore opportunities to incorporate Nokia’s data center switching and optical technologies in NVIDIA’s future AI infrastructure architecture.”

Nokia’s stock shot up over 20% on news of the deal.

“Nokia intends to accelerate development of Nokia’s 5G & 6G RAN software to run on NVIDIA’s architecture and will make investments to drive Nokia’s strategic goal of increasing its presence in the AI & Cloud market with data center aligned networking solutions within its Network Infrastructure business. Nokia and NVIDIA have agreed to collaborate on AI networking solutions and explore opportunities to incorporate Nokia’s data center switching and optical technologies in NVIDIA’s future AI infrastructure architecture.”

Nokia’s stock shot up over 20% on news of the deal.

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