Several of the most powerful business leaders in the country gathered around a table last night to fawn over President Donald Trump for his AI policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and your policies are really helping a lot,\u201d Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the president. AMD CEO Lisa Su praised \u201cthe amount of acceleration that we\u2019ve seen just in the few short months that the administration has been in place.\u201d Oracle CEO Safra Catz struck a note of adoration at \u201cthe fact that you are our president\u201d and that Trump quickly recognized the importance of AI. \u201cYou\u2019ve unleashed American innovation and creativity \u2014 all the work you\u2019re doing in basically every cabinet post in addition to what\u2019s coming out of the White House is making it possible for America to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for being such a pro-business and pro-innovation president,\u201d OpenAI CEO Sam Altman lauded. \u201cIt\u2019s a very refreshing change. We\u2019re very excited to see what you\u2019re doing to make all of our companies and our entire country so successful.\u201d He added that his company would \u201cinvest a ton in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
The round of flattery came during the public portion of a dinner Trump hosted at the White House Thursday with CEOs from many of the top tech companies working in AI, which also included those from Apple, Google, and Meta. Trump made a point of asking several of the CEOs how much they\u2019re spending in the US in the next few years, and seemed pleased after they threw out numbers in the hundreds of billions. Earlier on Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump hosted a task force meeting on AI education where many of those companies pledged investments to educate the youth and workforce<\/a> on how to use the new technology.<\/p>\n Each of the CEOs stand to gain \u2014 or lose \u2014 from Trump and his policies<\/p>\n Tech leaders\u2019 presence at the White House has become a relatively commonplace occurrence during this administration. Many of the CEOs who attended Thursday\u2019s dinner also showed up for Trump\u2019s inauguration<\/a> and donated to his inaugural fund. Zuckerberg had met with Trump in the West Wing<\/a> shortly before the government\u2019s antitrust trial against his company began. On Thursday, Zuckerberg \u2014 whom prior to their recent closeness, Trump has previously threatened to jail<\/a> \u2014 sat right next to the president, who teased Zuckerberg at one point of having the opportunity to launch his own political career with a response to a reporter\u2019s question.<\/p>\n Each of the CEOs stand to gain \u2014 or lose \u2014 from Trump and his policies. Those include everything from tariffs on semiconductors and other products, permits, access to resources like electricity to power energy-intensive AI, and more. Many of them are already engaged in legal battles with the administration over other parts of their businesses. Trump acknowledged Google\u2019s \u201cvery good day\u201d Wednesday when a judge denied Trump\u2019s DOJ the most aggressive antitrust remedies<\/a> it had asked for in its monopoly search case against the company. \u201cBiden was the one that prosecuted that lawsuit,\u201d Trump said, leaving out that his first administration had brought the complaint, and his second administration litigated the remedies trial. \u201cIt\u2019s a long process,\u201d Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. \u201cAppreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue and we were able to get it to some resolution.\u201d One or both sides could still appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose products are largely assembled in China and who seemed to be the rare business leader in Trump\u2019s first term who managed to walk a fine line of staying on his good side, seemed eager to maintain his good will while seated across the table from Trump Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible to be among everyone here, particularly you and the First Lady,\u201d Cook told Trump. \u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed having dinner and interacting.\u201d He thanked Trump for \u201csetting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States\u201d and added that it \u201csays a lot about your focus and your leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n