The White House dining room turned into a stage on Thursday where America’s most powerful technology executives lined up to pledge loyalty, not only with words but with staggering sums of money.
Almost all of America’s tech titans; the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, was conspicuous by his absence.
US President Donald Trump, introducing the gathering as a “high IQ group,” pushed each guest for numbers, and they delivered.
The evening was less about debating policy and more about confirming just how much Silicon Valley is willing to spend under Trump’s watch. What emerged was a chorus of billion-dollar commitments, matched by open praise for the President.
Mark Zuckerberg led the parade of figures, announcing that Meta would pour around USD 600 billion into AI and technology research in the United States.
“All the companies present are building huge investments in the country in order to build their data centers and infrastructure to power the next wave of innovation,” he said, giving Trump credit for setting the stage.
Apple’s Tim Cook mirrored the same figure. His message was equally direct: “I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States. That says a lot about your focus and your leadership and your focus on innovation.”
Sundar Pichai of Google reported $250 billion in Artificial Intelligence (AI) investment and pointed to Trump’s AI policy. “The AI Action Plan is a great start. We look forward to working together. And thanks for your leadership,” he told the President.
Satya Nadella of Microsoft said his company is committing up to $80 billion every year. He too linked this spending to the climate created by Trump’s economic policies.
Sam Altman of OpenAI made his allegiance crystal clear: “Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation President. It’s a very refreshing change. I think it’s going to set us up for a long period of leading the world, and that wouldn’t be happening without your leadership.”
Others, including Safra Catz of Oracle, Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron, Vivek Ranadive of TIBCO Software, Shyam Sankar of Palantir, Greg Brockman of OpenAI, David Limp of Blue Origin, Alexandr Wang of Scale AI, and Jared Isaacman of Shift4 Payments, joined the event. Bill Gates and Sergey Brin voiced support for AI innovation.
While the President dominated the dinner with questions about investment numbers, the First Lady ran a parallel discussion.
Melania Trump chaired the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education, signaling that the administration wants AI to be part of the American classroom as well as the boardroom.
