At a White House dinner with tech executives, President Donald Trump congratulated Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin following Alphabet’s favorable antitrust ruling on Tuesday.
“Well you had a very good day yesterday,” Trump said, calling on Pichai at the Thursday evening dinner. “Google had a very good day yesterday. Do you want to talk about that big day you had yesterday?”
Alphabet this week added $230 billion to its market cap after avoiding a breakup in a landmark antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020. Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search last year. Deciding on the penalties this week, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences proposed by the DOJ, causing shares of the search company to jump.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Pichai responded to Trump, causing an eruption of laughter from the other table guests.
“It’s a long process,” Pichai said. “Appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue, and we were able to get it to some resolution.”
“Right,” Trump replied.
“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 U.S. 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. And thanks for your leadership.”
The plan Pichai referred to is the administration’s “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” launched in July, which claims to identify 90 federal policy actions across three pillars: the acceleration of innovation, building of artificial intelligence infrastructure and leadership in international diplomacy and security. Part of that plan includes a July executive order that says AI models should not incorporate “Woke AI” or “ideological dogmas such as DEI,” meaning diversity, equity and inclusion.
Google is also in discussions with Trump’s lawyers for an ongoing lawsuit that the president filed more than four years ago, accusing the online video platform YouTube of unlawful censorship. The lawsuit stemmed from the suspension of Trump’s accounts on social media sites after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
Earlier Thursday, Pichai attended the White House “AI Education Taskforce” event hosted by First Lady Melania Trump.
Trump interrupted Pichai’s Thursday evening response to say “Biden was the one who prosecuted that lawsuit, you know that right?” Trump said, referring to the search monopoly case.
The search case was brought by the DOJ while Trump was in office during his first term. Pichai did not correct him.
WATCH: Alphabet antitrust ruling the ‘dream scenario’ for Google, says Wedbush’s Dan Ives
