Speculation swirled Friday over the last-minute collapse of President Donald Trump's planned executive order on powerful AI models, with fingers pointing at the president's allies in Silicon Valley who…

The executive order would have established voluntary government vetting of artificial intelligence models before they were released to the public.

Trump said he delayed the order because parts of the proposal risked slowing the U.S. AI industry as competition with China intensifies.

White House pauses AI order amid debate over innovation, security and competition

Trump's AI executive order was killed after direct lobbying from Musk, Zuckerberg, and Sacks, raising fresh questions about who actually shapes US AI policy.