They were all there. All, that is, except one major tech player: Elon Musk, who is now estranged from Donald Trump. At a table with the American president on September 4, tech bosses took turns to speak: Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Tim Cook (Apple), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Bill Gates, Lisa Su (AMD), Sam Altman (OpenAI), Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai (Google). All of them praised the new administration’s actions, particularly its efforts to support American businesses, and showed their mettle in the face of a commander-in-chief who is demanding that they dig deep into their wallets to support his « America First » policy. The words most often used in their speeches? Billions of dollars, of course, as Trump obliges, but also artificial intelligence.
« AI is at a turning point, and the fact that your administration is supporting our companies instead of fighting them is extremely important, » said
« AI is at a decisive turning point, and the fact that your administration supports our companies instead of fighting them is extremely important, » Google co-founder Sergey Brin launched at a delighted Donald Trump to be adored by what he calls « high IQs. »
The show must go on
What can we learn from this show? Firstly, that AI is no longer just a technology, but a tool for economic and geopolitical supremacy. Secondly, that Trump is seeking to turn the digital giants into partners, if not vassals, and that the latter are accepting him, out of pragmatism, but also out of fear of regulation.
Behind the staging appear the real stakes: the race for AI models, talent and data centers, rivalry with China and a global domino effect. This show of force follows on from the Stargate project, announced in early 2025: a $500 billion plan by 2029, backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX, to build massive infrastructures to support digital sovereignty, national security and the American industrial revival.
A few months later, Emmanuel Macron also set out his ambitions at the International AI Summit in Paris, pledging 109 billion euros of investment in data centers.
China wakes up
Above all, these quantified announcements reflect a growing mistrust between the major powers in the technology sector, and in artificial intelligence in particular. Nations are increasingly reluctant to depend on foreign solutions for their critical systems, a finding highlighted in a report by the World Economic Forum entitled AI geopolitics and data centers in the age of technological rivalry
The US – China rivalry is shaping this new era. The report The Great Tech Rivalry: China vs the U.S., published by the Harvard Kennedy School, is a reminder of just how meteoric China’s progress has been: iFlytek dominates voice recognition, including in English; WeChat Pay and Alipay are crushing Apple and Google Pay in digital payments; SenseTime and Megvii are surpassing their American equivalents in facial recognition; and Beijing is already training four times as many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) graduates as the United States.
Washington, however, retains some major advantages: its ability to attract the best international profiles and the concentration of the world’s AI « superstars ». But this advantage can be relativized, as shown by the rise of DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that has managed to compete with ChatGPT by relying on a new generation of local talent.
What about Morocco?
Morocco is at a crossroads in this major shift. Its economy remains heavily dependent on American platforms and solutions, whether in the cloud, software or digital services. This dependence entails obvious risks: technological marginalization, loss of sovereignty over data, strategic fragility in the face of tensions between major powers..
But it also opens up opportunities for alliances: foreign investment, skills transfers, academic and industrial partnerships… The Policy Brief from the think tank Policy Center for the New South reminds us that AI can be a catalyst for economic and social development, provided a clear national framework is established: data protection, talent training, sovereign digital infrastructures.
The question is therefore simple and decisive: will Morocco be content to be a consumer of imported AI, or will it be able to become a full-fledged player in this new digital geopolitics?
Written in French by Zakaria Choukrallah; edited in English by AngloMedia Group.
