G20 live updates: Lutnick to host AI policy talks with Huang, Altman in Chapel Hill

Artificial intelligence is taking center stage at the G20 gatherings this week.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic Co-Founder Tom Brown and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlight the tech-focused guests on Wednesday for day 2 of the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios are leading the conference, which gathers representatives of the G20 nations, including China, Brazil, Canada, Germany and others.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk were among the tech titans at Tuesday's session.Read more CNBC tech newsApple enters John Ternus era as AI challenges and memory crunch intensifyGoPro joins AI bonanza with pivot into data centers as shares skyrocket 40%AI data center play SB Energy, which is backed by Softbank and Nvidia, files for IPOWaymo and Zoox expand into more U.S. markets as robotaxi race heats upMusk warns of overregulation, predicts 20%-30% boom from AIElon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks virtually during the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. Cornell Watson | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesElon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said Tuesday that governments should seek to "make things default legal, not default illegal" to help foster growth, likening new companies to saplings in a forest."What most countries tend to do is they tend to provide too much support to the large existing trees in the forest, and not enough to the small saplings," he said, adding that the regulatory environment "should be generally biased towards supporting" the small trees.Musk, the world's richest person, also made several bold predictions on the potential for AI growth and robotics."AI will probably increase the global economy by 20% to 30%" he said, adding that in 10 years he expects over a billion humanoid robots out in the world.—Chris EudailyDavid Sacks says local communities can benefit from data centersFormer White House AI czar David Sacks addressed blowback against the AI data center buildout on Tuesday and said local communities can benefit from the construction projects."Data centers, if done right, they bring electricity costs down, not up, because the AI companies will generate net new power generation," he said. "That's really the key."Sacks, a venture capitalist who is co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology, said if the companies are allowed to generate their own power, then excess can be sent back to the grid, bringing costs down. He also said companies can help pay for grid upgrades.President Donald Trump on Monday blasted opposition to data centers, posting on Truth Social that any locale stonewalling the buildout must "want to end up being backwards and poor."Sacks insisted that it's still a local decision."The federal government should not preempt the decision of states with respect to data centers," he said. "It is fundamentally a local decision, and we respect that and have done nothing to change that."—Chris Eudaily