Trump hosts tech titans at White House dinner

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives on the White House on Thursday (September 4, 2025), showcasing analysis on synthetic intelligence and boasting of investments that firms are making throughout the United States.

“This is taking our nation to a brand new degree,” he mentioned on the centre of a protracted desk surrounded by what he described as “excessive IQ folks”.

It was the newest instance of a fragile two-way courtship between Mr. Trump and tech leaders, a number of of whom attended his inauguration.

Mr. Trump has exulted within the consideration from among the world’s most profitable businesspeople, whereas the businesses are keen to stay on the great facet of the mercurial president.

While the executives praised Mr. Trump and mentioned their hopes for technological developments, the Republican president was centered on greenback indicators. He went across the desk and requested executives how a lot they have been investing within the nation.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who sat to Mr. Trump’s proper, mentioned $600 billion. Apple’s Tim Cook mentioned the identical. Google’s Sundar Pichai mentioned $250 billion.

“What about Microsoft?” Trump mentioned. “That’s an enormous quantity.” CEO Satya Nadella mentioned it was as much as $80 billion per 12 months.

“Good,” Trump responded. “Very good.”

Musk lacking

Notably absent from the visitor checklist was Elon Musk, as soon as an in depth ally of Trump who was tasked with working the Department of Government Efficiency. Mr. Musk had a public breakup with Mr. Trump earlier this 12 months.

At the desk as an alternative was one in every of Mr. Musk’s rivals in synthetic intelligence, Sam Altman of OpenAI.

In one other reflection of shifting loyalties in Mr. Trump’s world, the dinner included Jared Isaacman, who based the cost processing firm Shift4.

Mr. Isaacman was a Mr. Musk ally chosen by Mr. Trump to guide NASA, solely to have his nomination withdrawn as a result of he was, in Mr. Trump’s phrases, “completely a Democrat”.

The dinner was anticipated to be held within the Rose Garden, the place Mr. Trump just lately paved over the grassy garden and arrange tables, chairs and umbrellas that look strikingly just like the out of doors setup at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Beach, Florida.

But due to inclement climate, officers determined to maneuver the occasion to the White House State Dining Room.

AI Education process power

The occasion adopted a day assembly of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education process power, which first woman Melania Trump chaired and a few tech leaders participated.

“The robots are right here. Our future is now not science fiction,” she mentioned.

Mr. Pichai, IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna and Code.org President Cameron Wilson have been amongst these collaborating within the process power.

The White House confirmed that the visitor checklist for the dinner additionally included Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates; Google founder Sergey Brin; OpenAI founder Greg Brockman; Oracle CEO Safra Catz; Blue Origin CEO David Limp; Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra; TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive; Palantir govt Shyam Sankar; Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang; and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.