Google CEO Sundar Pichai heaped praise on President Trump during a White House dinner on Thursday night – just two days after the Big Tech giant avoided a breakup and other major penalties in a landmark antitrust case involving its monopoly over online search.
Pichai and Google co-founder Sergey Brin were among tech CEO that included Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and OpenAI’s Sam Altman at the high-profile event, which featured discussions about US investments and artificial intelligence.
At one point, Trump turned to Pichai and said that Google “had a very good day yesterday” — referring to the company’s stock soaring nearly 10% a day aftter US District Judge Amit Mehta’s slap on the wrist, which was widely panned by anti-monopoly critics.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Pichai quipped, drawing a wave of laughter from the other tech honchos in the room. “It was a long process. Appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue, and we were able to get it to some resolution.”
Trump told Pichai that “Biden was the one who prosecuted that lawsuit” against Google, referring to the search trial.
The case was actually brought during Trump’s first term in office in 2020.
Also during the dinner, Pichai and his tech rivals threw flowers at Trump for his leadership on a variety of critical issues, from AI to the economy.
“The AI moment is one of the most transformative moments any of us have ever seen or will see in our lifetimes, so making sure the US is at the forefront — and I think your administration is investing a lot,” Pichai said. “Already the AI action plan under your leadership I think is a great start, and we look forward to working together.”
Cook lauded Trump for “setting the tone such that we can make a major investment in the United States and have some key manufacturing here.”
The iPhone maker has pledged $600 billion in US investments.
Altman praised Trump for “being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president.”
The dinner was originally slated to be held at the newly-renovated Rose Garden but moved inside because of rain.
Zuckerberg, who has visited the White House several times since Trump took office, was seated directly next to the president.
Pichai had the most to be thankful for after Mehta, who had earlier ruled that Google was a “monopolist,” ruled that the Justice Department had “overreached” by asking the court to force a sale of its Chrome web browser as a means of breaking up its chokehold on online search.
The judge allowed Google to continue making payments to partners like Apple to ensure its search engine is enabled by default on most smartphones, though they cannot be exclusive partnerships.
He did order Google to share data with its online search rivals.
Google still faces the threat of a breakup in a separate case targeting its monopolistic digital advertising practices.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema set the Sept. 22 trial date to consider remedies after ruling earlier this year that Google operates two separate illegal monopolies in the digital advertising technology that have “substantially harmed” customers. Google has vowed to appeal.
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