“I think that most CEOs I know want a set of rules, want regulation that lets us operate fairly but within bounds, and also a regulatory regime that is global. Everybody appreciates we can't do something without China doing something.”
Wall Street Week · October 2026
Context
Asked whether corporate America would be open to something like an FAA for AI, the Centerview Partners co-founder says CEOs want AI rules and want them global. He also names cybersecurity as one of the biggest areas of corporate spending right now.
Transcript
I don't think the political process is going to put itself on the line to say that it'll be job enhancing. Only time will tell. We do know historically, great technological innovations, and I use the word great as in large, not as in great, have led over time to new areas of jobs.
…is good for you. And maybe overly simplistically, there's a tendency to think that in general, corporations would like to have less regulation rather more. From your experience in the C-suite, in the boardrooms, is much of corporate America open to the possibility of an FAA, to use your word. 100%.
This is an area where CEOs are not embracing it as a total positive. They see the worry spots. They see the risk from security. They're spending a lot more on security in these security infrastructure companies for cyber are one of the biggest areas of investment right now. I think that most CEOs I know want a set of rules, want regulation that lets us operate fairly but within bounds, and also a regulatory regime that is global. Everybody appreciates we can't do something without China doing something. And to a lesser extent, because they don't have a lot, Europe has an example. And if you look at that summit two weeks ago, there's nothing that really came out of it that had anything to do with AI. And I'm hoping that the next two summits they have between now and the end of the year, China and the U.S., that AI really is one of the top topics on the agenda.
But whatever the local concerns and however they play out in this particular election, no one really thinks we will decide to put a stop to the march of AI in the United States.
Data Center are going to be built because they have to be built. We cannot afford to lose this race on technology to tyrannies like China. So we have to build data centers. The question is, can we do it in a way that it benefits everybody in the community?
Coming up, we turn from the issue everyone is talking about to one that no one wants to raise, even though it may be the most important for the future of the country and its economy. The ever-growing federal deficit and what can be done about it.
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