US President Donald Trump hosted a grand dinner at the White House for global tech leaders, with the who’s who of the industry in attendance. However, the absence of X boss and SpaceX chief Elon Musk has raised questions – was he not invited, or did he simply choose to skip it? The high-profile dinner took place in the White House State Dining Room after bad weather forced a move from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Musk did not attend the dinner, but his main competitor in the AI space, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was present.
.@Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells @POTUS his company will invest "at least $600 billion" in the U.S. over the next several years "to build out data centers and infrastructure to power the next wave of innovation." pic.twitter.com/0lxkQ845v6
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 5, 2025
Who All Were Present At The White House Dinner Hosted By Trump?
- Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg
- Apple’s Tim Cook
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
- Google co-founder Sergey Brin
- OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman
- Oracle CEO Safra Catz
- Micron chief Sanjay Mehrotra
- TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive
- Palantir’s Shyam Sankar
- Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang
- Blue Origin CEO David Limp
- Shift4 Payments boss Jared Isaacman
Musk Responds To Speculation
As speculation about Musk’s absence grew, he clarified that he “was invited, but unfortunately could not attend.” He further added, “A representative of mine will be there.”
A White House official, however, offered a different take, saying Musk—who previously advised Trump—wasn’t on the official guest list.
The exact reason why Elon Musk missed Trump’s high-profile dinner for tech leaders is still unclear.
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