Five Indian-American CEOs at Trump's tech dinner

TOI correspondent from Washington: Amid growing disquiet and resentment in MAGA circles about immigration, job loss, and presence of foreigners, particularly Indians, in tech circles and corporate America, five Indian-American executives are among more than a dozen CEOS who will be at President Donald Trump's dinner for tech honchos at the White House on Thursday.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Micron Technologies' CEO Sanjay Mehrotra are among confirmed attendees for the dinner, along with Vivek Ranadive, Chairman of TIBCO, and Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Meta, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, all companies with extensive India operations, are among the invitees. A notable absentee: Tesla/SpaceX boss Elon Musk.


The White House has not elaborated on the purpose of or agenda for the dinner meeting, which will take place in the renovated Rose Garden, whose makeover with limestone paving has invited a lot of scrutiny and adverse comments. The dinner follows a meeting on artificial intelligence hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, which focuses on developing AI education for American youth, suggesting that AI and emerging technologies may be key topics of discussion.

David Sacks, venture capitalist and White House crypto and AI czar is said to be coordinating the events aimed at aligning the tech community with Trump White House priorities, including rolling back diversity and equity initiatives, which ironically facilitated a strong immigrant presence in US tech industry. Also on hand is Sriram Krishnan, who serves as the Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, and is actively involved in shaping the administration’s AI policy, including co-authoring the American "AI Action Plan" released in July 2025.

The conspicuous Indian-American presence alongside tech czars well-disposed towards India comes amid a White House-generated crisis in ties with New Delhi centering on tariffs and India's import of Russian oil. There is also a sharp uptick in anti-India sentiment in the Trump-adoring MAGA constituency, which has launched a xenophobic campaign against immigrants and foreigners in the tech sphere, arguing that they "steal American jobs" and depress wages.

MAGA principals like Laura Loomer, Steve Bannon, and Jack Posobiec have framed the H-1B visa program, used primarily by IT majors with vibrant India presence, as antithetical to MAGA's "America First" policies, arguing it prioritizes foreign workers over American citizens. Loomer, who criticized Trump’s appointment of Sriram Krishnan as an AI policy adviser citing his support for expanding green cards and H-1B visas, has claimed that tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy push for H-1B visas to secure "unlimited slave laborers from India and China who never assimilate," invoking the "Great Replacement" theory.

But the strong Indian-American presence at the dinner -- not to speak of CEOs well-disposed towards New Delhi with big India operations -- shows the White House is well-aware of the key role India plays in the tech sphere despite MAGA reservations and despite the glitch in ties with India. Missing from Thursday's dinner are another half-dozen Indian-origin Fortune 500 CEOs, including IBM's Arvind Krishna and Adobe Systems Shantanu Narayen.