Altman, Huang and Musk are heading to the same G20 AI summit

OpenAI's Sam Altman and Nvidia's Jensen Huang are scheduled to speak in person next week at the G20 Innovation Ministerial, a tech-focused meeting the United States is hosting in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, on September 1 and 2, Reuters reported Thursday. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director Michael Kratsios are hosting the event, whose agenda is built around what organizers call advancing shared AI objectives among G20 partners.

Altman's appearance includes a dedicated fireside chat with Lutnick himself. An OpenAI spokesperson said the two will discuss "upcoming advances in AI technology," giving the US Commerce Secretary a direct, on-stage conversation with the head of the company at the center of the current AI boom.

Elon Musk is also on the program, but not in the room. Reuters reported that the SpaceX and Tesla chief executive is set to address attendees live via video chat, alongside Meta's Dina Powell McCormick and venture capitalist David Sacks, a former White House AI adviser, rather than appearing in person alongside Altman and Huang.

The joint billing lands a few months after Musk and Altman were on opposite sides of a courtroom. A jury in Oakland ruled in May that Musk's lawsuit accusing Altman and OpenAI of abandoning the company's founding nonprofit mission had been filed after the statute of limitations expired, a verdict the judge adopted; Musk called it a "calendar technicality" and said he would appeal, and the underlying dispute over OpenAI's mission was never resolved on the merits. A shared program at a G20 ministerial does not require the two men to appear together, but it puts both names, and Nvidia's, on the same agenda at a moment when the US government is positioning itself as host and broker for the industry's biggest players.