Trump to host top tech leaders at White House dinner, Musk notably absent

US President Donald Trump is set to welcome an array of high-profile technology leaders for a special dinner at the White House on Thursday evening. The guest list features industry giants such as Bill Gates, Tim Cook, and Mark Zuckerberg, along with a dozen other executives representing artificial intelligence and major tech firms. Notably absent, however, is SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk.

Trump, who once tapped Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, saw their relationship sour earlier this year after Musk publicly distanced himself from the administration. His omission from the dinner marks a significant shift in their once-close association.

The White House revealed that the dinner was originally scheduled for the Rose Garden, recently remodeled with a Mar-a-Lago–style outdoor layout of tables and umbrellas. Due to heavy rain in Washington, however, the event was moved indoors to the State Dining Room, officials confirmed.

The dinner follows an afternoon meeting of the Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force, chaired by First Lady Melania Trump. Addressing attendees, she declared, “The robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction.” Several of the same technology leaders participated in both the task force session and the evening dinner.

According to the White House, the final guest list includes Sundar Pichai (Google), Arvind Krishna (IBM), Cameron Wilson (Code.org), Sergey Brin (Google co-founder), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sam Altman and Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Safra Catz (Oracle), David Limp (Blue Origin), Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron), Vivek Ranadive (TIBCO Software), Shyam Sankar (Palantir), Alexandr Wang (Scale AI), and Jared Isaacman (Shift4 Payments).

The absence of Musk, once among Trump’s trusted allies, underscores the evolving dynamics between the president and Silicon Valley, even as AI and emerging technologies take center stage in national policy discussions.