Trump hosts tech titans at White House dinner

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

“This is taking our country to a new level,” he said at the centre of a long table surrounded by what he described as “high IQ people”.

It was the latest example of a delicate two-way courtship between Mr. Trump and tech leaders, several of whom attended his inauguration.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attends a private dinner for technology and business leaders hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Mr. Trump has exulted in the attention from some of the world’s most successful businesspeople, while the companies are eager to remain on the good side of the mercurial president.

While the executives praised Mr. Trump and discussed their hopes for technological advancements, the Republican president was focused on dollar signs. He went around the table and asked executives how much they were investing in the country.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who sat to Mr. Trump’s right, said $600 billion. Apple’s Tim Cook said the same. Google’s Sundar Pichai said $250 billion.

“What about Microsoft?” Trump said. “That’s a big number.” CEO Satya Nadella said it was up to $80 billion per year.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, left, speaks, with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, during a dinner with President Donald Trump in the State Dinning Room of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
| Photo Credit:
Alex Brandon

“Good,” Trump responded. “Very good.”

Musk missing

Notably absent from the guest list was Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump who was tasked with running the Department of Government Efficiency. Mr. Musk had a public breakup with Mr. Trump earlier this year.

At the table instead was one of Mr. Musk’s rivals in artificial intelligence, Sam Altman of OpenAI.

In another reflection of shifting loyalties in Mr. Trump’s world, the dinner included Jared Isaacman, who founded the payment processing company Shift4.

Mr. Isaacman was a Mr. Musk ally chosen by Mr. Trump to lead NASA, only to have his nomination withdrawn because he was, in Mr. Trump’s words, “totally a Democrat”.

The dinner was expected to be held in the Rose Garden, where Mr. Trump recently paved over the grassy lawn and set up tables, chairs and umbrellas that look strikingly similar to the outdoor setup at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

But because of inclement weather, officials decided to move the event to the White House State Dining Room.

AI Education task force

The event followed an afternoon meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force, which first lady Melania Trump chaired and some tech leaders participated.

“The robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction,” she said.

Mr. Pichai, IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna and Code.org President Cameron Wilson were among those participating in the task force.

The White House confirmed that the guest list for the dinner also 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 executive Shyam Sankar; Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang; and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.