At a worshipful State Dining Room, Big Tech courted policy access, celebrated a lighter regulatory touch, and flashed trillion-dollar ambitions. Elon Musk stayed away and stayed salty.

A New Courtship Ritual at Dinner

Thursday night’s White House dinner delivered a simple message from Silicon Valley to Washington: we can play nice when it pays. Cameras rolled as top tech figures, from those specializing in social media, artificial intelligence (AI) and more, took turns thanking the president and talking up American investment, an optics-perfect scene in which power met money and both smiled for the record. The performance element was the point, and everyone hit their mark.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, were among the attendees.

The $600 Billion Flex

Mark Zuckerberg sat to the president’s right and talked about “huge investments,” while name-checking Meta’s plan to spend at least $600 billion through 2028 on U.S. data centers and infrastructure. If regulatory vibes stay friendly, that hyperscale budget becomes a moat. It also becomes leverage in every conversation about energy, zoning, and tax incentives that touch those builds.

Altman’s Trump Applause Line, Gates’ Gratitude

OpenAI’s Sam Altman thanked Trump for being a “pro-business, pro-innovation president,” saying, "It's a very refreshing change. ... I think it's going to set us up for a long period of leading the world, and that wouldn't be happening without your leadership." Bill Gates offered public appreciation too, a genteel nod that doubles as a signal to agencies and appropriators who will shape AI’s future. The room’s mood said the quiet part out loud: charm the policymaker, de-risk the roadmap.

Policy Small Talk with Very Large Consequences

The choreography may be ceremonial, but the agenda is not. There’s a need to address the raw power, and legislation, needed to power the next wave of giant data centers, as well as the bureaucratic snags that slow grid hookups. Those nuts-and-bolts fixes are worth far more to these companies than any single handshake photo.

Tech wants a light regulatory touch on AI. That pitch landed alongside the reality that the current FTC chair, Andrew Ferguson, is a vocal Big Tech critic. Translation for the dinner crowd: play nice in public, push hard in private, and hope the referees swallow the whistle.

Musk, Invited, Still Unamused

One billionaire did not attend the ball. Elon Musk said on X he was invited, could not attend, and sent no vibes beyond the familiar posture of wounded detachment. Given his recent season as an insider, the absence is loud. The rest of the class showed up, smiled, and banked IOUs. Musk stayed outside, where the applause is thinner and the leverage is smaller.

The Soft Power Math

For the CEOs, this is not about likes, it is about permissions and plumbing. Licenses, interconnects, tax treatment, export allowances, spectrum, visas, grid hookups, even the right to pour concrete on a tight timeline. Public praise is the cheap down payment. The return shows up in a permitting office, an appropriations subcommittee, or a tariff footnote that quietly shapes who scales and who stalls. Though, not everyone among Trump's base will be pleased...

Washington likes a narrative about jobs and national strength. Big Tech can supply both, at least on paper, with eye-watering capex and patriotic ribbon cuttings. In exchange it prefers clarity over crusades. Fewer surprise rules, faster project approvals, friendlier interpretations from people who answer the phone. Call it regulatory mood music. Get the key in the right, predictable, business-friendly key and the orchestra will play louder.

The real action is always off camera. The dessert course becomes a sidebar on energy capacity needs, chip supply chains, or the wording of an AI safety memo. A single adjective in a federal guideline can move billions. That is why everyone shows up polished and patient. Charm first, specifics later, outcomes months from now. If the trade is flattery for facilitation, Silicon Valley is already doing the math and the answer keeps coming back the same: access compounds.

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