Initially politicians were responsive. In Feb. 2024 he sought trillions of investment to ramp up "AI" [1]. Then he got the White House announcement with Trump and Softbank for the $500 billion Stargate deal. The project has flopped, only one data center will be built.
So I assume he thought hype would work again, but people are beginning to scrutinize the real capabilities of "AI".
[1] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sam-altman-seeks-trillions-of-do...