For Trump, it was a chance to highlight what he cast as a cooperative relationship with industry, from loosening regulation to tackling the energy demands of new data centres

President Donald Trump’s White House dinner with the chiefs of the US’s biggest tech companies was meant to showcase unity between the president and Silicon Valley.

Instead, the glaring absence of Elon Musk underscored the growing rift between the one-time allies as rivals like Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman lined up to praise the administration.

The event, held in the state dining room after rain washed out plans for a rose garden spectacle, saw executives, including Cook, Altman, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, take turns thanking Trump for his “pro-business” agenda.

Many used the

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