US President-elect Donald Trump has invited a number of tech leaders for a meeting that has been dubbed the Trump tech summit. This is a significant development for two reasons – first, throughout his campaign, Trump did not say anything about what his policy towards the Silicon Valley and the technology industry in general would be, and second, because nearly every tech leader campaigned for Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton. Therefore, it is no surprise that all eyes are on Trump tech summit and how it pans out, since it will show The Donald’s towards the growing US tech sector. We answer all the questions you may have about the Trump tech summit below:
The Trump tech summit is a meeting requested by the new US President-elect, but its agenda is yet unclear. However, a report by Forbes citing people familiar with the matter claims that at the tech summit, Trump will talk about bringing jobs back to America, one of his campaign promises. He is also said to talk about “using technology to streamline government.” Trump’s hardline stances against net neutrality, free trade, and H-1B visas will be causes of concern for the executives attending the Trump tech summit.
The Forbes report, citing a person close to the campaign, said that the Trump tech summit is a way for the President-elect to assert his “dominance” over Silicon Valley.
(Also see: What Zuckerberg, Nadella, and Other Tech Executives Said After Donald Trump's Victory)
The Trump tech summit will be held at the Trump Tower in New York and is scheduled to start at 2pm EST (12.30am IST) on December 14. It is expected to last an hour, and the US President-elect is expected to be part of the meeting majority of the time. Trump aides at the summit will include his Chief-of-Staff Reince Preibus, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and PayPal co-founder and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
A number of top technology executives have been reportedly invited to the Trump tech summit. These include Google co-founder Larry Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Oracle Co-CEO Safra Catz, Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, and IBM CEO Ginny Rometty, among others. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick have also been invited to the Trump tech summit.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, however, did not get an invitation to the tech summit, even though Trump frequently uses the micro-blogging platform to air his views.
(Also see: What Silicon Valley Executives Plan to Say at Trump Tech Summit)
Most of the executives mentioned above are expected to attend the Trump tech summit. Microsoft’s Nadella, Intel’s Krzanich, Oracle’s Catz, Cisco’s Robbins, IBM’s Rometty, and Alphabet’s Schmidt have reportedly RSVP’d to the Trump tech summit, while others who have been invited are also attending.
However, the chief executives of Airbnb and Uber are confirmed to not be attending as they are travelling outside the US. The CEOs of Slack, Netflix, and Dropbox are also not attending the tech summit, according to reports.
(Also see: Here's What CEO Tim Cook Said to Apple Employees After Donald Trump's Win)
The focus of the Trump tech summit is likely to be on bringing jobs to the US. Trump in November said that he had spoken to Apple’s Cook about building manufacturing plants in the US. He said in a New York Times interview that his administration will provide “very large tax cuts” as part of his plan to bring manufacturing jobs back in the US. There is no official word on the agenda of the Trump tech summit so far.
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