US President Donald Trump hosted tech CEOs, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and five Indian CEOs, for a dinner at the White House on Thursday night (local time).
However, Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, once a strong ally, was not invited. The Republican president tasked him with running the government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year.
The guest list featured several prominent figures from major artificial intelligence and technology firms, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The Indian-origin CEOs who attended the event included Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, and Palantir executive Shyam Sankar.
Trump was seated at the centre of a long table between first lady Melania Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The dinner was initially expected to be held in the Rose Garden, where Trump recently paved over the grassy lawn and set up tables, chairs and umbrellas that look strikingly similar to the outdoor setup at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. But as rain began falling at the White House Thursday afternoon, officials decided to move the event to the White House State Dining Room because of inclement weather, according to a White House official who was not authorised to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, AP reported.
The event follows a meeting Thursday afternoon of the White House's new Artificial Intelligence Education task force, which first lady Melania Trump chaired and some of the tech leaders participated in.
(With inputs from AP)
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