Trump’s “Super Intelligence” Push Reaches Tech Earnings Calls

On Sept. 29, President Donald Trump ordered executive branch departments and agencies to replace the term “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence,” according to his announcement at a White House AI luncheon.

The order arrived as Trump worked to ensure AI growth in the U.S. with limited regulation. This week, he also announced on Truth Social that he was banning the use of AI or artificial intelligence in “all relevant documents” and “everything else.”

His announcement did not settle the vocabulary inside the technology sector. One month after the order, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg embraced “super intelligence” on earnings calls. Their fellow technology executives were less eager to abandon AI.

The timing carried political weight. The rebrand came just before midterm elections next week, with the Republican Party at risk of losing control of both the House and Senate. Trump’s job approval was falling, and his economic approval had reached an all-time low, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey, released the previous week.

Executives from major technology companies had already shown alignment with Trump through other actions. Tech leaders contributed to the inauguration festivities or the planned White House ballroom. Some had deliberately removed diversity, equity and inclusion programs that the president opposed.

Musk and Zuckerberg were perhaps tech’s fiercest administration supporters, but they were not political outliers. The split among executives made Trump’s order a visible test of corporate language.

How did Musk and Zuckerberg use the phrase?

SpaceX and Tesla adopted Trump’s wording on earnings calls last week. Musk had already renamed the rocket company’s AI division SpaceXSI earlier in October. Discussing Tesla’s work on humanoid robots, Musk said: “Some of them look very impressive, but they're not really using any kind of advanced AI or SI.”

Zuckerberg used the phrase on Meta’s Oct. 21 earnings call. He emphasized the company’s “goal of delivering personal superintelligence to everyone.”

Meta had already used the term before Trump’s order. The company created a unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs the previous year.

For Meta, the wording was therefore not new. For other companies, the same phrase could signal agreement with a White House policy favored by a president seeking faster AI growth under limited regulation. The earnings calls made that overlap unusually visible.

Who still said AI?

Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet kept AI at the center of their earnings commentary.

• Amazon: CEO Andy Jassy used the acronym AI well over a dozen times in his introductory remarks on Thursday.
• Microsoft: One day earlier, CEO Satya Nadella said one of the company’s three points of focus was “designing AI to empower people.”
• Alphabet: CEO Sundar Pichai, seconds into his quarterly earnings commentary, said the search giant’s “AI investments are driving increased usage and overall user growth.”

Those executives did not openly defy Trump. The administration’s preferred term was already seeping into corporate correspondence and documents. Earnings teams still used the older label.

Microsoft’s annual report, filed the previous week, included eight mentions of super intelligence, starting at the top of its shareholder letter. “For Microsoft, the central question as we enter this Super Intelligence era is not just how big the opportunity becomes, but how we deliver the real-world outcomes that every country, community, and company demands and deserves,” Nadella wrote.

Nadella turned the terminology dispute into a question of delivery. Pichai tied AI investment to usage and user growth. Jassy placed the acronym throughout his opening remarks.

Where did “super intelligence” appear?

• IBM: CEO Arvind Krishna, who did not attend Trump’s September lunch, used SI alongside AI during his earnings call last week. Krishna said: “technology innovation in both hybrid infrastructure and super intelligence is leading to better business performance,” adding that IBM is advancing as a “software-led hybrid cloud and AI platform company.”
• Intel: CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Thursday that the supply shortage facing the chip industry was “driven by the unprecedented demand for super intelligence.”

IBM’s dual vocabulary showed that the change remained incomplete. Intel went further and placed super intelligence at the center of its account of chip supply, turning a terminology choice into a direct claim about market demand.

The industry’s core investment question remained unchanged. Companies still needed computing capacity, customer adoption and commercial returns. Trump’s preferred term now sat alongside those measurable goals.

Who backed the phrase publicly?

Some industry leaders supported the terminology before their earnings reports next month.

Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora repeatedly referred to SI on CNBC. On X on Sept. 30, he wrote: “The meeting at the WH on SI was an epic moment.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also spoke out after last month’s AI meeting. He praised the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence” on X and described the technology’s potential in broad terms.

Nvidia was the world’s most valuable company, and its chips had powered much of the AI boom. Huang was also one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in tech and the president’s top ally on the AI safety debate.

He wrote: “Super Intelligence offers an extraordinary opportunity to advance discovery, productivity, security, health, and prosperity.” Huang added: “The future of Super Intelligence will be shaped not only by what it can do, but the confidence it earns.”

What does the split mean?

The calls now show two ways of presenting the same technology. Musk, Zuckerberg, Huang, Arora, Krishna and Tan used super intelligence or SI. Jassy, Nadella and Pichai kept AI in their investor commentary. Microsoft did both, while IBM mixed the terms on its call.

The stakes go beyond a label. Trump was working to ensure U.S. AI growth with limited regulation. Tan linked super intelligence to unprecedented chip demand. Huang tied it to discovery, productivity, security, health, prosperity and public confidence.

Nadella asked how companies would deliver real-world outcomes. Pichai pointed to increased usage and user growth. Their language focused on measurable performance while Trump’s preferred framing focused on the technology’s broader future.

For investors, the vocabulary signals which companies have aligned with the administration’s preferred framing and which have kept AI in their investor discussions. The next earnings reports, due next month, will provide the clearest test. Several leaders have already endorsed the terminology before those calls, yet the current split remains visible. Trump’s rebrand has become a public measure of political alignment inside the industry, even as companies continue to describe products, demand and investment with both labels.