President Donald Trump is set to host tech leaders at the White House this week as his administration pushes to strengthen ties with the industry.
A White House spokesman confirmed the Thursday event at the newly renovated Rose Garden to the Washington Examiner.
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Two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, are slated to attend the Thursday evening gathering at the Rose Garden. Others invited to the event include Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai, founder and CEO of Google, respectively; Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle; and Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
Trump recently renovated the Rose Garden, turning the area’s iconic lawn into a stone patio.
“It’s a beautiful white stone, and it’s a stone that’s the same color as the White House itself,” he told reporters on Aug. 3. “And because it’s very white, it’s going to reflect the heat and it’s not going to be very hot. Yeah, we’ve got great reviews of the Rose Garden.”
The Trump administration touted the gathering on the patio taking place this week, calling the “Rose Garden Club” at the White House “the hottest place to be in Washington, or perhaps the world.”
“The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political, and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to the Hill.
The gathering comes as Trump has prioritized technological advancements during his second presidential term. He released an AI action plan earlier this year, saying, “It is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance.”
The technological emphasis has extended to the president’s inner circle, as X owner Elon Musk led an effort aimed in part at modernizing federal agencies through his pioneering of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Although Trump and Musk had a falling out, the president has formed a particularly close alliance with tech leaders such as Apple’s Cook, who appeared at the White House in August to announce a new $100 billion investment in domestic manufacturing.
First lady Melania Trump has followed her husband’s lead in focusing on Big Tech, particularly emphasizing artificial intelligence in education, including with a Thursday meeting at the White House on the matter.
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“I predict AI will represent the single largest growth category in our nation during the Trump administration — and I won’t be surprised if AI becomes known as the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America,” the first lady said in a statement.
“But, as leaders and parents, we must manage AI’s growth responsibly,” she continued. “During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children — empowering, but with watchful guidance. We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare America’s children.”