Prominent tech leaders gathered at the White House for a 24-minute, on-camera dinner where President Donald Trump and executives exchanged compliments and highlighted large-scale U.S. investment plans. According to SFGATE, the event featured Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg seated to Trump’s right, with first lady Melania Trump on his left, and included appearances by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Executives praise Trump, outline spending
Trump opened by lauding the attendees as “the most brilliant people,” calling the group “definitely a high-IQ” gathering. He noted he knew the executives “indirectly” and “some of them very well,” and told reporters he wanted them to have “a little access” to the discussion.
Altman thanked Trump for being “pro-business” and “pro-innovation,” saying the investment momentum and the ability to bring industry power back to the United States would set up “a long period of great success.” The executives shared figures that, collectively, would exceed $1 trillion in U.S. commitments. Trump observed the press was “going a little crazy” over the group’s presence.
Big numbers at the table
Zuckerberg projected Meta will invest “at least $600 billion” in the U.S. through 2028, prompting Trump to remark, “That’s a lot,” to which Zuckerberg replied, “It’s significant,” drawing laughter. Pichai said his priority is ensuring the U.S. leads in AI and stated Google expects to invest $250 billion in the next two years. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company was investing around $75 billion to $80 billion. Cook praised Trump’s “focus and your leadership,” and projected Apple’s investment at $600 billion.
Notable absence and broader context
Elon Musk, described as a former Trump ally, did not attend; he said on X that he was invited but could not make it and would send a representative. Gates, who had previously criticized Trump’s foreign aid cuts, used the dinner to emphasize collaboration on taking American innovation “to the next level” to address diseases such as polio, HIV, and sickle cell anemia.
SFGATE noted that tech giants were already channeling tens of billions into U.S. projects before Trump’s second term, largely for data center expansion driven by artificial intelligence. None of the executives offered specific examples of how Trump is directly boosting their ability to invest over the coming years.
