The Scoop
President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance had lunch with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Wednesday, along with Elon Musk, according to people briefed on the meeting.
Microsoft President Brad Smith also attended the gathering at Mar a Lago, the latest example of the tech industry’s increasingly close relationship with Trump following his victory in the November election.
Microsoft is among the big tech companies with the most to gain — or potentially lose — with the changing of the guard in Washington.
The federal government is a massive customer for its Windows operating system and Office software. And it has become a key provider of cloud computing infrastructure in nearly every agency.
Now, Microsoft is one of a small handful of companies attempting an unprecedented build out of compute capacity to satisfy the insatiable appetite from consumers and businesses for artificial intelligence models.
In a written statement, Microsoft said its two executives had a “Productive meeting,” and discussed cybersecurity, technology policy, and the $80 billion Microsoft plans to invest this year in AI infrastructure worldwide, “creating new American jobs for American workers and advancing American competitiveness both in the U.S. and abroad.”
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Microsoft’s plans could be aided or stymied by federal and state agencies, which could cut red tape for AI data centers and provide funding for energy infrastructure to satisfy the whopping demand for power at the facilities.
Musk’s xAI is also a player in that space. In Memphis, the company built what is believed to be the largest data center in the world in terms of compute power, with an unprecedented 100,000 Nvidia graphics processors running simultaneously.
Musk has been critical of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, which he is suing for transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity.