Bill Gates is gearing up to dramatically expand his AI safety push , personally leaning on business leaders and considering a major deployment of his resources, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: The formidable, sharp-elbowed Bill Gates who built Microsoft is back, and he's directing his competitive fire toward what he has come to see as one of the most important causes of his lifetime.

"I can reach CEOs on this better than you can," Gates told one person he consulted on AI safety, showing an eagerness for combat that associates say is a return to "OG" form.

Driving the news: Once a voice for optimism on AI, Gates has grown dismayed by an escalation of model capabilities, alarming security incidents and what he sees as insufficient regulation, sources say.

As he prepared to make the case for a far more robust regulatory framework on AI, he conferred extensively with leading AI executives, researchers and safety advocates, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

That process led Gates to see containing AI…