A star-studded dinner was hosted by former US President Donald Trump at the White House for prominent figures in the technology sector. The event, which brought together some of the biggest names in the industry, however, raised questions regarding the absence of Elon Musk, the head of X and SpaceX. Speculation arose as to whether Musk was uninvited or chose not to attend. The dinner was relocated to the White House State Dining Room due to inclement weather, after initially being planned for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
While Musk was not present, his competitor in the AI field, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was in attendance.
Notable attendees included:
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Micron chief Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, Palantir’s Shyam Sankar, Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, and Shift4 Payments boss Jared Isaacman.
Responding to inquiries, Musk clarified that he was invited but unable to attend, stating that a representative would be present. Conversely, a White House official suggested Musk, who previously advised Trump, was not on the official guest list. The reason for Elon Musk’s absence from the high-profile tech dinner remains uncertain.