A hot mic caught Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg in an awkward moment with Donald Trump during a glittering White House dinner, and the exchange has since gone viral.Pressed by the president on how much Meta planned to invest in the United States, Zuckerberg paused before answering: “umm at least $600 billion through 2028.” Seconds later, unaware his microphone was still live, he leaned towards Trump and added quietly: “I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with.” The moment, clipped and shared widely on social media, came during a lavish dinner that brought together the heads of some of the world’s most powerful technology companies. In attendance were Google founder Sergey Brin, Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Safra Catz, among others. Notably absent was Elon Musk, who said he had been invited but sent a representative instead, citing scheduling conflicts.The evening was marked by a string of tributes to Trump. Altman told him: “Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president. It’s a refreshing change.” Cook praised him for “setting the tone” for investment in US manufacturing, while Nadella spoke of the “trust the world has in American technology” under Trump’s policies. Bill Gates, seated next to First Lady Melania Trump, urged that artificial intelligence should also benefit “the poorest outside the US, as well as our great citizens.”Trump, clearly pleased with the attention, referred to the group as “high IQ people” and repeatedly asked executives to quantify their investment commitments. Pichai pledged $250 billion, Nadella up to $80 billion per year, and Zuckerberg and Cook both echoed the $600 billion figure.The dinner followed a White House task force meeting on AI education chaired by Melania Trump, who called for “watchful guidance” in the sector’s growth. Earlier in the day, Senator Josh Hawley had attacked Meta and ChatGPT in a speech, warning of unchecked AI expansion.Despite occasional criticism from Republicans, Trump has revelled in his new rapport with Silicon Valley, which had largely opposed him in his first term.
