Donald Trump Hosts Tech Titans at White House, Elon Musk Conspicuously Absent
US President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered dinner for a slew of technology executives at the White House on Thursday night, bringing together some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, even as his once-close ally Elon Musk was notably left off the guest list . The event saw top leaders including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gather in a significant display of the Trump administration’s engagement with the tech sector .
The dinner, which was moved from the newly renovated Rose Garden to the State Dining Room due to inclement weather, followed an afternoon meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force . The task force was chaired by first lady Melania Trump, who opened the session by stating, “The robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction” . She emphasized the need for responsible growth and watchful guidance of AI, comparing it to raising children .
President Trump was seated between the first lady and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg . The extensive guest list also featured Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and several other Indian-origin executives like Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive . The gathering highlighted a thawing relationship between Trump and an industry he has often criticized .
However, the absence of Elon Musk, whom Trump had previously tasked with running the Department of Government Efficiency, underscored a recent and public falling out between the two figures . The rift was further highlighted by the presence of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, an associate of Musk whom Trump had nominated to lead NASA before revoking the nomination around the time of his breakup with the Tesla chief .
The outreach to tech leaders comes amid emerging divisions within the Republican Party over AI regulation. Senator Josh Hawley, a close Trump ally, sharply criticized the tech industry and called for government inspection of advanced AI systems on the same day as the dinner .
Trump himself has shown a complex attitude toward AI, frequently sharing AI-generated images online while also complaining about the technology being used to create misleading videos . The first lady has also pushed for legislation to penalize the creation of AI-generated deepfake imagery for sexual exploitation
