U.S. President Donald Trump met privately with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backstage at last week’s Republican National Convention, according to three people familiar with the encounter. Altman requested the meeting, which focused on artificial intelligence and its growing influence. The discussion took place as Trump publicly dismissed AI safety concerns as a hoax and promoted data centers as a source of wealth. Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei had urged developers to pace the next advance in model capability, a position Altman joined alongside Elon Musk. Trump repeated his criticism at the All-In Summit, where he called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang live on stage and said AI safety fears were a hoax, but Nvidia shares fell 3% and chip stocks broadly declined as investors priced in a potential slowdown in AI spending. Vice President JD Vance has also expressed skepticism toward AI executives seeking government regulation. Neither the White House nor OpenAI has detailed the backstage discussion, leaving Trump’s private engagement with Altman at odds with his public dismissal of AI risks.