Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Bill Gates were at the White House on Thursday night, part of a high-profile gathering of tech leaders who combined praise for President Donald Trump with promises to invest in U.S. infrastructure, manufacturing, and artificial intelligence.
The discussion felt at times like a high-stakes poker game, with Trump pressing each executive to reveal the size of their bets on America’s future, like a dealer asking players to ante up.
Nadella told Trump that America’s tech leadership depends on innovation and global trust in U.S. technology, praising the administration for creating conditions where “the rest of the world can not only use our technology, but trust our technology more than any other alternative.”
The Microsoft CEO also highlighted AI education and workforce training as “perhaps the most defining issue” for the future thanking First Lady Melania Trump for putting skilling and opportunity at the center of the administration’s AI push.
Gates focused on what he called his “second career” of philanthropy, linking it back to the innovation that defined his years at Microsoft. He told Trump that AI could help accelerate progress in global health — acting as “a doctor for everyone in Africa,” giving farmers better advice, and expanding opportunities for children to learn.
He compared the potential of AI-driven health innovation to the government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, saying the U.S. could take “the seeds” of research in areas like HIV and sickle cell disease and, with the right support, “put them together” to achieve breakthroughs much as it did with COVID-19 vaccines.
Gates did not reference the congressional hearing earlier in the day with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary who has voiced skepticism about vaccines and clashed with public health officials over U.S. immunization policy.
, when the discussion was opened up to reporters, Trump was asked if he had confidence in Kennedy. Trump described Kennedy as “a very good person” with some “different ideas,” adding that he liked the fact “he’s different.”
Others at the table included OpenAI’s Sam Altman; AMD CEO Lisa Su; Apple’s Tim Cook; Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Google’s Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin.
Touching on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to health, the roundtable dinner discussion felt like “passing a camera around to take turns wishing a distant, unloved uncle a very happy Thanksgiving,” in Wired’s estimation.
Earlier in the day, companies made a series of announcements in conjunction with the White House AI Education Task Force meeting.
- Microsoft offered 12 months of free Microsoft 365 with Copilot to every U.S. college student, expanded access for schools, and $1.25 million in educator prizes as part of the Presidential AI Challenge.
- Amazon pledged to train 4 million learners and 10,000 educators by 2028, backed by $30 million in AWS credits and $1.5 million in cash prizes related to the AI Challenge.
- Google committed $1 billion over three years for education and job training, including $150 million for AI education, free access to its Gemini for Education model in every U.S. high school, and an accelerator expansion to 200 colleges.
- IBM said it to train 2 million American workers in AI skills over the next three years through its IBM SkillsBuild program.
- Code.org will engage 25 million learners in the “Hour of AI” this school year, build AI pathways in 25 states, and launch a free high school AI course for 400,000 students by 2028.
Watch the video of the roundtable discussion above.
