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Donald Trump hosted a dinner party for tech bosses
US President Donald Trump hosted a dinner party at White House on Thursday, September 4, 2025, to discuss artificial intelligence and U.S. tech investment with over 30 top tech leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai, and Satya Nadella.
Tech bosses attend the Rose Garden Club
The dinner event, referred to as the ‘Rose Garden Club’ by the White House, took place in the newly renovated Rose Garden patio and followed an AI-focused presentation led by the First Lady, Melania Trump.
Elon Musk, who leads AI startup xAI, was notably absent due to reported tensions with President Trump and is also involved in an active lawsuit against Apple and the App Store.
After OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke, Trump addressed Tim Cook, who was sitting to the right of the latter.
“Tim Cook, you’ve done an incredible job with Apple. A little company called Apple,” joked Donald Trump.
“Thank you, Mr. President,” replied Cook.
“Very few people have been able to do what you’ve done. Congratulations,” said the President.
“Thank you, sir. That means a lot to me. I want to thank you for including me this evening. It’s incredible to be among everyone here, particularly you and the First Lady. I’ve always enjoyed having dinner and interacting,” said Cook.
Lauding Trump’s leadership for creating the conditions that allowed Apple to expand in the U.S., the Apple CEO said, “I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States and have some key manufacturing, advanced manufacturing here. I think that says a lot about your focus and your leadership and your focus on innovation.”
“I also want to thank you for helping American companies around the world,” he added. “This is a very key, key thing. And I really enjoy working with your administration on those topics as well because I think they’re so important to the country.”
Praising Melania Trump’s education work, Apple’s boss said, “I want to thank the First Lady for focusing on education. There’s nothing more important than education. It is the great equaliser and always will be.”
He added, “We are all different in some ways, but we all believe in the power of technology to improve people’s lives. And that is the thing that binds us all together.”
Donald Trump next asked the Apple CEO directly: “And, Tim, how much money will Apple be investing in the United States? Because I know it’s a very loud…You were elsewhere and now you’re really coming home in a big way. How much money will you be investing?”
Incidentally, an announcement of $600 billion of investment was made last month.
Tim Cook replied, “$600 billion,” to which Trump replied, “$600 billion. That’s a lot of jobs.” To which Cook responded: “We’re very proud to do it.”
“That’s great. Thank you very much,” President Trump concluded.
“Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir,” Cook said.