Big Tech Praises Trump, With Eye On U.S. AI Dominance At White House Dinner

Photo:Screenshot WH Video

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, along with Micron Technologies’ CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Vivek Ranadive, Chairman of TIBCO, and Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir, were among the leading tech executives who joined President Donald Trump at the White House for a high-profile summit on artificial intelligence on September 4.

The event, hosted by the President and First Lady, brought together executives from the country’s largest technology companies to discuss policy, infrastructure, and investment in artificial intelligence.

Some of the executives at the dinner had also attended Trump’s inauguration, indicating their desire to either fall in or stay out of the mercurial president’s crosshairs.

Absent from the event was Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has had a falling out with Trump. Musk said in a post on his social media platform X that while he had been invited to the dinner, he could not attend and sent a representative in his place.

At the dinner, the Wall Street Journal reported, Trump “led leaders of the world’s biggest technology companies in a version of his cabinet meetings, in which each participant takes a turn thanking and praising him, this time for his efforts to promote investments in chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence.”

Tech titans including Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said “thank you” to the president.

Nadella praised the administration’s policies for creating a global platform where U.S. technology remains both trusted and widely adopted. “One of the things that I think has made this industry unique is not only the innovation, but it’s the market access that you have obviously championed for us all over the world and also the trust the world has on American technology,” Nadella said. “Everything that you’re doing in terms of setting in place the platform where the rest of the world can not only use our technology, but trust our technology more than any other alternative, is perhaps the most important issue.”

Pichai echoed Nadella’s emphasis on trust and global competitiveness, calling AI “one of the most transformative moments any of us have ever seen or will see in our lifetimes.” He credited the White House for prioritizing investment through the AI Action Plan. “Making sure the U.S. is at the forefront — and I think that your Administration is investing a lot already — is crucial. We look forward to working together, and thanks for your leadership,” Pichai said.

The gathering also featured remarks from Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Safra Catz, and AMD’s Lisa Su, among others.

President Trump talked about his robust health and the White House said in a statement that the dinner was “about unleashing American innovation,” pointing to record levels of infrastructure investment, manufacturing commitments, and cross-industry collaboration.