Tech Billionaire Elon Musk absent as Trump Hosts Tech Leaders at White House Dinner
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted top technology executives at the White House on Thursday night, in a high-profile dinner focused on boosting domestic investment and innovation.
One notable absence was Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their relationship soured earlier this year after Musk dismissed Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” as “idiotic,” warning it would worsen federal debt. The feud escalated when Musk accused Trump on X of concealing Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
Instead, the guest list featured Musk’s rivals and other industry leaders. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg were among those seated around Trump at the long table.
“This is taking our country to a new level,” Trump declared, describing his guests as “high IQ people.” He pressed executives on their U.S. investments, with Zuckerberg claiming Meta spends $600 billion annually, Cook citing the same figure for Apple, Pichai noting $250 billion from Alphabet, and Nadella pledging $80 billion from Microsoft.
Other attendees included IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Oracle’s Safra Catz, Google founder Sergey Brin, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. Trump also welcomed Blue Origin CEO David Limp, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Palantir’s Shyam Sankar, Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, and Code. org president Cameron Wilson.
Trump, who has long courted Silicon Valley while also sparring with its leaders, used the event to boast about America’s AI progress and frame tech investment as a cornerstone of his economic agenda.
