Tech giants Nvidia And Cisco have committed millions to the project to renovate President Donald Trump’s ballroom at the White House, CNBC confirmed Thursday.
NVIDIA and Apple each pledged $25 million to the project, according to a Washington Post report. These were the largest donations on the list, totaling more than $330 million.
“As an American company, our support in the United States is paramount and independent of any commercial interests,” an Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC. “We were proud to be able to donate to a nonpartisan foundation that serves all Americans and we have said so publicly since the donation was made.”
Amazon, Palantir, ServiceNow, Metaplatforms And Microsoft also made contributions in the millions, according to the Post. Microsoft and Meta declined to comment on the report. Cisco and ServiceNow have confirmed their $5 million donation.
“ServiceNow’s activities with the U.S. government are separate and unrelated to any donations we make to any cause,” the company said in a statement to CNBC. “Any attempt to link the two processes is completely inaccurate.”
Amazon, Apple, HP Inc., MicronPalantir, Sales force and Vast Space, all of which were listed as major donors in the report, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Post reported that donations to the ballroom were sent through a nonprofit trust and that donors were given a pledge form to donate to the “Donald J. Trump Ballroom.”
Lawmakers and experts have repeatedly called for donations to the project, asking for information on private donors. Some have also expressed concerns about the potential influence these commitments could have on policy decisions or the awarding of federal contracts.
Tech executives largely favored Trump’s light-touch, business-friendly approach to antitrust and regulation, and some companies won hundreds of millions of contracts through artificial intelligence infrastructure and defense deals during his second term.
Tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, are regulars at state dinners and meetings in Washington, and were central figures at the White House AI luncheon on September 29.
Documents obtained by the Post showed 67 contributions greater than $10,000 as of late September.
Read the full Washington Post article here.
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