Trump hosts AI and tech leaders at White House dinner; Musk left off guest list
The high-profile dinner took place on the Rose Garden patio, which has recently been remodelled with tables, chairs and umbrellas resembling the outdoor setup at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
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President Donald Trump welcomed some of the world’s most powerful technology leaders to the White House on Thursday evening for a dinner in the Rose Garden, though Elon Musk, once considered a close ally, has been left off the guest list.
According to the White House, the invitees includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadivé, Palantir executive Shyam Sankar, Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.
Trump’s team confirmed the high-profile dinner took place on the Rose Garden patio, which has recently been remodelled with tables, chairs and umbrellas resembling the outdoor setup at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“The Rose Garden Club at the White House is the hottest place to be in Washington, or perhaps the world,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political, and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio.”
The event followed the inaugural meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force, chaired by First Lady Melania Trump. In a statement, she drew a parallel between child-rearing and technological development: “During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children – empowering, but with watchful guidance. We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare America’s children.”
Some of the tech leaders attending Thursday’s dinner were expected to participate in the task force discussions, which aim to develop AI education programmes for young Americans.
The absence of Elon Musk stands out. The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive had been tasked by Trump with overseeing the newly created Department of Government Efficiency but publicly split from the president earlier this year. Their relationship soured further after Trump revoked Musk associate Jared Isaacman’s nomination to head NASA, citing the decision as one of Musk’s grievances. Despite this, Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments, is still listed among the dinner guests. Trump later described Isaacman as “totally a Democrat.”
The Hill first reported news of the dinner on Wednesday.
