Anthropic CEO Amodei to have dinner with Trump at White House | Technology
Dario Amodei to Dine with President Trump Amid AI Tensions
By Agence France Presse and Reuters
Published on September 28, 2026
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump for a private dinner at the White House on Sunday. This gathering will mark the first one-on-one meeting between the two leaders, amid ongoing tensions between the artificial intelligence startup and the Trump administration.
The dinner, confirmed by Trump, follows months of contention over the regulation of artificial intelligence, a topic that has been contentious within the administration. Reports, including one from Axios, indicate that Amodei’s concerns about the rapid advancement of AI will likely be a focal point of discussion.
During a recent appearance at the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Illinois, Trump reiterated his opposition to slowing down AI development, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a technological edge over China. “We’re about maybe a year and a half up on China,” Trump stated in an interview with Fox News. “We’re leading, and we’re building tremendous, trillions of dollars’ worth of places. And why should we give that up?”
The meeting comes shortly after a federal appeals court upheld a Pentagon decision classifying Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” This designation prohibits the U.S. military from utilizing Anthropic’s AI models. The startup faced sanctions earlier this year after declining to permit its tools to be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.
In recent comments, Trump criticized Amodei’s call for a pause in AI development, describing him as attempting to be “a perfect little angel.” Meanwhile, Amodei was not in attendance at a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping last Thursday, which featured other prominent AI industry leaders, including Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Despite increasing calls to moderate the pace of AI development due to perceived risks, the U.S. government maintains that major players in the sector—such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta—must continue to innovate to avoid ceding ground to Chinese advances in technology.
Looking ahead, Trump is scheduled to meet with leading AI executives, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, on Tuesday.
