Discussion Topics at President Donald Trump's 'High IQ' Gathering with Tech Leaders, Featuring Tim Cook from Apple and Satya Nadella of Microsoft; Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX was extended an invitation but opted out of participation.
In a significant gathering of tech industry leaders, President Donald Trump hosted a dinner on Thursday, bringing together some of the most influential figures in the industry. The event, which took place in the White House, saw the attendance of Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Sundar Pichai (Google), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), and Elon Musk (Tesla, represented).
Despite Musk's inability to attend, the evening was marked by a lively discussion about the future of technology and investment plans. Sundar Pichai mentioned a total investment of $250 billion, while Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to invest at least $600 billion by 2028 in the U.S. Satya Nadella revealed that Microsoft's investment could reach up to $80 billion per year.
The evening began with Trump praising each attendee as part of a "high IQ group." He also took the opportunity to congratulate Pichai on the determined penalties in Google's antitrust case, which were lighter than what the DOJ had been seeking. Google's parent company, Alphabet, added $230 billion to its market capitalization this week.
Other notable attendees included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
The tech-focused dinner was preceded by an AI event hosted by the First Lady, Melania Trump, in the afternoon. Melania emphasised the importance of teaching AI literacy from a young age to keep the U.S. competitive in the field. She also highlighted the need to address community challenges through AI, as part of an "Age of AI" challenge launched last month for students.
The rest of the details from the dinner are locked and require a subscription for access. However, it is known that Trump asked each tech leader about their investment plans in the U.S., and the discussions were centred around the future of technology and its impact on the economy.
