There is zero downside to America of having a frontier class Opensource/openweights multi-trillion parameter large model, and most likely a huge upside over time also to the private sector. Totally agree with
@dee_bosa.
The question is what would the business model look like for this? If it takes $3B - $5B to train a frontier class model that is not just a distillation of another model, then the business model for that model has to be fully sorted out for that sort of capex on a per model basis.
But hard to deny that America would benefit greatly from having one. It needs a world class research team that is well hydrated with a well thought out business model to provide the right level of returns on the invested capital along with meaningful national security benefits.