Trump Meets with Tech Titans: From Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates, But Elon Musk Is Absent

Casal dels Infants – On September 4, former U.S. President Donald Trump hosted a private White House dinner with top tech industry leaders. Notable names included Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google’s Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai, and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman.

One high-profile figure, however, was noticeably absent: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and currently the world’s richest person.

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Trump’s Relationship with the Tech World

Although Trump had a somewhat strained relationship with Silicon Valley during his first term, he now appears to be more welcomed by tech leaders. He has been actively promoting cryptocurrency, pushing back against foreign regulation of U.S. technology, and advocating for American dominance in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

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Trump praised his guests as “leaders of a revolution in business, genius, and everything you could imagine.” During the dinner, Zuckerberg was seated next to the former president, while Gates sat beside former First Lady Melania Trump.

Focus on AI and Cryptocurrency Leadership

A day prior to the dinner, Melania Trump hosted a White House event focused on the future of AI in America. “Robots are already here. “Our future is no longer science fiction,” she said. Tech leaders, including Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai, attended the event.

Donald Trump appointed venture capitalist David Sacks as the White House’s head of AI and cryptocurrency. During the dinner, Sacks outlined the Trump administration’s efforts to secure America’s lead in AI over China and thanked the assembled tech executives for prioritizing America’s interests.

A Long Guest List of Innovators

In addition to high-profile executives, the dinner was attended by more than two dozen other tech leaders and innovators, including:

Dylan Field (CEO of Figma)
Sunny Madra (President of Groq)
Chamath Palihapitiya (Founder of Social Capital)
Mark Pincus (Founder of Zynga)
Jamie Siminoff (Founder of Ring)
Safra Catz (CEO of Oracle)
David Limp (CEO of Blue Origin)
Sanjay Mehrotra (CEO of Micron Technology)
Greg Brockman (President of OpenAI)
Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft)
Vivek Ranadive (Founder of Tibco)
Shyam Sankar (CTO of Palantir)
Economic and Tech Policy Strategy

Trump also reiterated his aggressive economic policies, including tariffs and pushing for the reshoring of manufacturing to the United States. In June, his administration released an AI blueprint aimed at loosening environmental regulations and expanding AI exports to allied nations, part of a broader strategy to ensure U.S. dominance in the global tech race.