SpaceX’s Musk, David Sacks to Join Altman, Huang at G20 Event

SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who ran a brazen campaign in Washington to cut government spending last year, and former White House AI czar David Sacks are scheduled to speak at a tech-focused Group of 20 ministerial meeting in North Carolina next week, along with Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, people familiar with the matter said.

The event — organized by Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — is part of the lead-up to the G20 summit of the world’s largest economies, which will be hosted by President Donald Trump in December at his golf club in Doral, Florida.

Musk and Sacks are set to appear on Sept. 1, the first day of the tech meeting, alongside Meta Platforms Inc. President Dina Powell McCormick, who served as deputy US national security advisor during Trump’s first term, said the people, who described the plans on condition of anonymity because the agenda hasn’t been announced. Those three are set to be virtual speakers, one of the people added. Altman and Huang will join for the second day, which is led by the Commerce Department. Axios earlier reported on the Day Two speakers.

Kratsios’ goal for the summit will be to bring G20 members — which include China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the UK and France — into agreement on a non-binding framework that calls for a lighter-touch approach by governments to emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. That framework would serve as a joint statement submitted for consideration at the leaders’ G20 summit in December, one of the people added.

White House and Commerce Department spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Altman’s plans to take part, while spokespeople for Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Musk and Sacks also did not immediately respond.

Dubbed the Carolina Principles, the framework instructs policymakers to avoid creating new regulatory bodies while encouraging sector-specific approaches and closer collaboration between governments and private industry to test emerging technologies, one of the people said. White House officials have already begun engagement on the proposal in hopes of persuading G20 countries to embrace the principles by the end of the ministerial.

Musk, Sacks and McCormick plan to discuss their views on how regulatory environments should be shaped to promote innovation, one of the people said. The global artificial intelligence boom has stirred growing questions about the role governments should play in overseeing the emerging technology. Officials in Washington have tried to balance protecting innovation with the emerging cyber and national security risks posed by AI, a dilemma that’s touched off a turf war within the Trump administration.

Other speakers on the first day of the tech event include Bob Mumgaard, chief executive of nuclear fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and Arizona State University President Michael Crow, one of the people said. Sacks, a venture capitalist, has continued to advise Trump since leaving his White House post earlier this year.