US President Donald Trump, on Thursday evening, hosted a rare White House dinner with some of the world’s most powerful technology executives. Industry leaders pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in investments aimed at boosting America’s artificial intelligence capabilities and digital infrastructure.
“This is quite a group to get together,” remarked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seated at Trump’s right. He informed the president that companies were “making huge investments in the country in order to build out data centers and infrastructure to power the next wave of innovation.”
Responding, when Trump pressed him for specifics, Zuckerberg replied that Meta would invest “at least $600 billion” in the U.S. through 2028. “That’s a lot,” Trump responded, noting that he had recently highlighted Meta’s $50 billion data center project in Louisiana.
Trump, throughout the time, kept the spotlight on investment numbers, going around the table and asking each executive how much they were committing.
Apple chief Tim Cook echoed his support, while Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company’s US investments would total around $250 billion. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Trump the figure for his company was “up to $80 billion per year.” “Good,” Trump said. “Very good.”
“This is taking our country to a new level,” the president said, describing those around the long table as “high IQ people” shaping America’s technological future.
However, notably missing from the dinner was Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, once a close Trump ally. Musk posted on his X platform that he had been invited but could not attend, instead sending a representative.
To mention here that the two men had a public falling out earlier this year, after Trump had once tasked Musk with running the Department of Government Efficiency.
The dinner could be described as a renewed courtship between Trump and Silicon Valley.
Several executives who had distanced themselves during his first term have returned to the White House under his second, promising massive US investments. Some have also followed Trump’s lead in rolling back diversity programs and taking a tougher stance on misinformation initiatives.
The guest list, meanwhile, highlighted the weight of the gathering.
According to the White House, it included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, OpenAI founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, IBM chairman Arvind Krishna, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, Palantir executive Shyam Sankar, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.
The dinner followed a meeting of the White House’s newly created Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force, chaired by First Lady Melania Trump.
In a parallel development, Trump recently threatened trade sanctions against countries imposing regulations on US tech firms, singling out the European Union. Since returning to office in January, he has also cut international aid and rolled back investments in vaccine development.
For the US President, Thursday evening was as much about showcasing corporate confidence in America as it was about technology. “This is taking our country to a new level,” he said again, smiling as executives pledged staggering sums toward what he hailed as the next great wave of innovation.
More broadly, companies have announced billions in US investments amid Trump’s tariff drive. The president has hinted that firms committing to domestic projects could receive exemptions from some duties, as part of his strategy to push manufacturing of critical goods back to American soil.
Trump’s relationship with Silicon Valley, meanwhile, has deepened since his January inauguration, where Zuckerberg, Cook and Pichai were given prominent seats after donating millions to the event. With the 2026 midterm elections looming, Trump and his allies are expected to turn again to tech leaders for support as they seek to maintain Republican control of Congress.
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