Where America stands on superintelligence.

A machine intelligence that is far more capable than the best humans in nearly every field: science, engineering, strategy, persuasion. The philosopher Nick Bostrom made the term popular with his 2014 book of the same name. It is a step beyond AGI, which usually means a system that matches people across most tasks rather than one that clearly surpasses them.

By most researchers' definitions, no system meets either bar yet. Today's models beat experts on many narrow tests but still fail at long, open-ended work that a capable person handles routinely.

• Who predicts it when

On September 29, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14434, "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence". Federal agencies must now write "Super Intelligence" and "SI" wherever they used to write "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI". The White House says the old name undersold what current systems can do.

The order gives the President's science and technology adviser until November 28, 2026 to propose a federal legal definition of the new term. On October 8 the President went further, posting that the White House considers anyone who still says "artificial intelligence" an "enemy".

• The executive order, explained
• The "enemy" post
• Order text (White House)

No. The order changed the vocabulary, not the technology. Until a new definition is written, "Super Intelligence" legally covers exactly what the existing statutory definition of AI already covered: chatbots, image models and recommendation systems included.

Whether systems are actually approaching superintelligence is a question of evidence: what models can do on hard, independent tests, how long they can work unsupervised, and whether they can do AI research themselves. That is what our SI Index tracks.

• The SI Index

The main contenders are OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI, Meta and Microsoft. Meta reorganized its AI work as Meta Superintelligence Labs in June 2025, and Microsoft formed an MAI Superintelligence Team that November. All of them except Microsoft, joined by Nvidia, signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence in September 2026.

Behind them sits the largest construction program in tech history, from OpenAI's Stargate data centers in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to the Department of Energy's national labs.

• The players
• Meta Superintelligence Labs
• Microsoft's superintelligence team

Mostly accelerating. America's AI Action Plan (July 2025) set more than 90 federal actions to speed up development, build data centers and export the U.S. technology stack. The Genesis Mission (November 2025) puts the national labs' supercomputers to work on AI-driven science, with more than $5 billion announced.

Oversight so far is voluntary. The September 2026 White House Accord asks companies to audit themselves, with no penalties. On October 4, 2026 the President created a "Super Intelligence Force" under Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, with a report due in 120 days.

• The AI Action Plan
• The Genesis Mission
• The White House Accord
• The Super Intelligence Force

That fight is open. California enacted SB 53 in September 2025, requiring large frontier developers to publish safety frameworks and report critical incidents. In December 2025 an executive order told federal agencies to challenge state AI laws that conflict with national policy, and in March 2026 the White House asked Congress to pass a single national standard.

An executive order cannot override state law on its own. Until Congress acts, companies face both layers.

• California SB 53
• The order on state AI laws
• The national policy framework

Yes, from both ends of politics. The Statement on Superintelligence (October 2025) asks that no one build it until scientists agree it can be controlled and the public consents. Its early signers ran from Steve Bannon to Susan Rice, alongside AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio.

In September 2026 Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar proposed the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would outlaw it permanently and pause advanced AI until a new federal regulator sets safety rules.

• The Statement on Superintelligence
• The Sanders–Casar bill

Nobody knows, and the people closest to the work disagree. Public forecasts from lab leaders and researchers range from the late 2020s to the 2040s, and they often predict different things: "AGI", "powerful AI" and "superintelligence" are not the same claim.

We keep each forecast with its exact wording and source, so you can judge them yourself.

• All forecasts

Washington wants allied money, talent and suppliers in its SI build-out, and it is also tightening control over who gets chips and who can invest. We keep a practical guide to the projects, programs, rules and events that matter for foreign companies and governments.

• Entering the U.S. SI market