US President Donald Trump hosted leading tech CEOs at the White House for a dinner focused on artificial intelligence and innovation. The Rose Garden event featured several Indian-origin executives, including Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, highlighting their global influence in shaping technology.
US President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday night to showcase America’s growing focus on artificial intelligence. At the centre of the meeting, Trump praised the research and investments being made in the sector, calling it a leap that would “take our country to a new level.” Seated at a long table, he described his guests as “high IQ people”. It was the latest example of a delicate two-way courtship between Trump and tech leaders, several of whom attended his inauguration.
The event took place in the Rose Garden, which has been recently repurposed with tables, chairs and umbrellas resembling the outdoor setup at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The atmosphere blended formality with Trump’s signature touch of personal branding.
Indian-origin CEOs who attended Trump’s dinner
Notably, the evening saw strong representation from Indian-origin executives, showcasing their rising influence in the global tech industry.ย
- Sundar Pichai (Google)
- Satya Nadella (Microsoft)
- Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron)
- Vivek Ranadive (TIMCO Software)
- Shyam Sankar (Palantir)
Musk not in the guest list
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, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.ย 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. Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year. At the table instead was one of Musk’s rivals in artificial intelligence, Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Trump’s investment push faces criticism
While the executives praised Trump and talked about their hopes for technological advancement, the Republican President was focused on dollar signs. He went around the table and asked executives how much they were investing in the country. Trump’s outreach to top tech executives has occasionally been divisive within the Republican Party. One of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, Senator Josh Hawley, delivered a sharp criticism of the tech industry during a speech at a conservative conference in Washington on Thursday morning. He criticised the lack of regulation around artificial intelligence and singled out Meta and ChatGPT.
(With inputs from AP)
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