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Washington: US President Donald Trump hosted big names from the world of technology at the White House on Thursday. On this occasion, there was talk of research on artificial intelligence and huge investments by companies in America. But the absence of the world’s richest man Elon Musk, who was once a close friend of Trump, caught everyone’s attention. Musk, who runs companies like Tesla and SpaceX, played an important role in Trump’s victory in the presidential elections.
Musk’s absence became the center of discussion
Trump, sitting in the middle of a long table, praised tech leaders as ‘people with high IQ’. He called it an opportunity to take the country to new heights. This meeting was another proof of the closeness between Trump and the tech world, but Musk’s absence became the center of discussion. Musk was earlier running the Department of Government Efficiency with Trump, but after differences with him earlier this year, he distanced himself from the US President.
Sam Altman replaces Elon Musk
Musk’s absence made even more headlines as his AI rival, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, was called in his place. Musk and Altman have already been at loggerheads over ChatGPT and the AI race. Musk’s company xAI, which created Grok, is rapidly working in the field of AI, but this time his chair in the White House remained vacant. Trump did not say anything about this, but Musk’s absence clearly showed that their relationship is no longer the same.
The focus in the meeting was on investment
Donald Trump’s focus was on the amount of investment. He asked every leader present at the table how much money their company was investing in the US. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg mentioned $600 billion, Apple’s Tim Cook also mentioned the same amount, and Google’s Sundar Pichai mentioned $250 billion. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella talked about investing $80 billion every year, which Trump expressed happiness over. Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla also invest heavily in the US, but their absence left a void in this discussion.
Musk’s old associates also changed
The special thing was that Jared Isaacman of Shift4 Payments, who was once close to Musk, was also present at this dinner. Trump had earlier chosen him as the leader of NASA, but withdrew his name due to his democratic image. Isaacman’s presence and Musk’s absence presented another example of Trump’s changing relationships. This dinner was earlier scheduled to be held in Rose Garden, where Trump has created a setup like the Mar-a-Lago Club. But due to bad weather, it had to be shifted to the State Dining Room. The guests included names like Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Google’s Sergey Brin, Oracle’s Safra Catz, and Scale AI’s Alexander Wang.
