White House gets tech leaders to sign AI safety pledge as consumer AI economics stay shaky
Major tech CEOs signed an AI safety pledge at the White House as President Trump renamed AI as 'Super Intelligence' by executive order, while a TechCrunch podcast notes the industry's real money still comes from enterprise, not consumers.
This week, the White House brought together several leading tech executives — including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei — to sign a pledge on AI safety. President Donald Trump described the agreement as 'morally binding.' At the same time, Trump signed an executive order formally rebranding artificial intelligence as 'Super Intelligence.'
Meanwhile, companies including Meta and OpenAI are working to present friendlier, more approachable versions of their AI products to the public. However, hosts of TechCrunch's Equity podcast — Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane — pointed out that the bulk of money actually being made in the AI industry still comes from enterprise clients rather than everyday consumers.
A shifting IPO landscape
The podcast hosts also discussed what it means that health tech company Oura withdrew its IPO plans, that Anthropic's S-1 filing leaked, and that OpenAI has returned to raising private funding instead. Together, these moves suggest public markets have become considerably more selective about tech company valuations.
Startup funding highlights
The episode also covered maritime technology startup Quartermaster, which raised $140 million to bring real-time sensors to the shipping industry — a sector AI has largely not yet reached. Also mentioned were Atomic, a supply-chain startup founded by former Tesla employees that already handles 90% of DoorDash's purchasing operations, and Charter Space, a satellite insurance startup that raised $5 million.
