Top Tech Executives to Meet Trump to Talk Jobs, Regulations -- 2nd Update
December 14 2016 - 12:36PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas and Rolfe Winkler
About a dozen prominent tech executives will meet with
President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday in a high-profile summit
that could help set the tone for relations between Silicon Valley
and a president it views warily.
The attendee list for the meeting in Trump Tower in New York is
a Who's Who of tech: Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook,
Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook Inc. Chief Operating
Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella, Tesla
Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk, and both the CEO and chairman of Google
parent Alphabet Inc., Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, people familiar
with the plans said. The CEOs of Intel Corp., International
Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and
Palantir Technologies Inc. are also expected to attend, the people
said.
At the meeting, scheduled for 2 p.m., Mr. Trump is expected to
emphasize job creation and making government more efficient,
according to a person familiar with the agenda.
Following the meeting, the president-elect is expected to talk
with Messrs. Cook and Musk in separate one-on-one sessions.
Tech lobbyists, lawyers and analysts say the companies'
principal goal is preserving the status quo. The past eight years
under President Barack Obama have been an era of tremendous growth
and record profits for Silicon Valley, aided by favorable federal
policies, such as free trade, relatively weak antitrust enforcement
and net neutrality, a policy that requires internet providers to
treat all web traffic equally.
But Mr. Trump and his team have hinted at changes that worry
many big tech firms, such as trade restrictions, stricter
immigration policy and tougher antitrust enforcement.
The jobs discussion could also put the tech giants on the
defensive. Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook are five
of the nation's seven most-valuable companies and together employ
roughly 600,000 workers. But they employ fewer people --
particularly in the U.S. -- than many less-valuable firms. Wal-Mart
Stores Inc., for instance, employs 1.5 million people in the U.S.
alone. Mr. Trump has criticized Apple, among others, for making
nearly all of its products overseas.
Wednesday's meeting will be brokered by billionaire tech
investor Peter Thiel and Mr. Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared
Kushner. Their presence could help smooth relations between Mr.
Trump and tech companies he has scolded.
Mr. Thiel -- among the few prominent tech titans who backed Mr.
Trump -- was the first outside investor in Facebook and is now a
board member there. He is a former business partner and friend of
Mr. Musk. He could serve as an advocate for the tech industry,
particularly on subjects like entrepreneurism and antitrust
enforcement.
Mr. Kushner and his wife, Mr. Trump's daughter Ivanka, have also
sought counsel in tech circles on how the administration can work
with the industry, according to people familiar with the
matter.
The Trump transition team, meanwhile, said it added prominent
Silicon Valley executives to a separate group that will advise the
president-elect on business and economic policy. The President's
Strategic and Policy Forum initially included only one tech
executive, IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty .
On Wednesday, the transition team said it added Mr. Musk and
Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Travis Kalanick, along with PepsiCo
chief Indra Nooyi, to the group.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com and Rolfe Winkler at
rolfe.winkler@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 14, 2016 12:21 ET (17:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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