New global order: AI CEOs as heads of nation-states
TL;DR
At the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, leading AI CEOs were seated with heads of state, not treated as side-room advisers. Axios frames the scene as a new geopolitical order: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, Salesforce and Mistral are being handled like power centers. Sam Altman reportedly held bilateral-style meetings with several leaders while warning governments not to hand responsibility to AI labs.
Nauti's Take
The image matters more than the PR framing around it. Of course AI CEOs want international standards, because standards can also secure market access, trust and influence.
Governments should not treat these companies as neutral utilities: they are actors with their own incentives, investors and geopolitical interests. The right role is closely supervised supplier and object of scrutiny, not informal co-sovereign.
Briefingshow
AI is no longer being treated as a tech sector alone, but as security, economic and power infrastructure. When CEOs sit next to presidents, the issue is not just regulation. It is who actually decides which systems are built, deployed and constrained.
Sources