Trump's dinner with tech CEOs: Which Indian-origin bosses among attendees?

Top technology executives praised Donald Trump on Thursday at a rare White House dinner where the US President hosted leading figures in artificial intelligence

US President Donald Trump on Thursday hosted a high-profile gathering of technology leaders at the White House, where he highlighted research on artificial intelligence and emphasised corporate investments being made across the United States.

 

While the executives lauded Trump and discussed their vision for technological progress, the President steered the conversation towards investment, asking participants one by one how much they were committing within the country.

 

Big tech leaders join, Musk absent 

The extensive guest list featured Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and several other senior executives from leading artificial intelligence and technology firms.

 

Elon Musk, once a close Trump ally and previously appointed to head the Department of Government Efficiency, was conspicuously missing. Their relationship ended publicly earlier this year. Representing the AI sector at the table instead was Musk’s competitor, Sam Altman of OpenAI.

 

Indian-origin executives participate

 

Indian-origin executives who attended the Rose Garden meeting included Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra, Tibco Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, and Palantir executive Shyam Sankar.

 

In a surprising inclusion, the White House confirmed that Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman was also present at the dinner. Once nominated by Trump to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), his candidacy was withdrawn around the time of Trump’s fallout with Musk. Trump later said that Isaacman was “totally a Democrat”, calling the withdrawn nomination one of Musk’s grievances.

 

Republican criticism of tech industry 

Trump’s engagement with Silicon Valley leaders has drawn mixed reactions within the Republican Party. Senator Josh Hawley, one of Trump’s closest allies, delivered a pointed critique of the technology sector during a conservative conference in Washington earlier the same day. He condemned the absence of regulation around artificial intelligence and directly targeted Meta and ChatGPT.

 

Trump, however, has embraced AI-generated imagery and frequently shares it online, despite earlier expressing concern about the use of the technology to create misleading videos.

 

Silicon Valley’s shift towards Trump 

Several tech leaders who withheld support during Trump’s first term have since altered their stance following his return to office. Many have visited the White House pledging significant investments in the US. Some have also quickly aligned with Trump’s position on ending diversity promotion initiatives and scaling back efforts to counter online misinformation.

 

(With inputs from AP)