Amodei to Meet Trump in First One-on-One White House Dinner

The private dinner marks the first one-on-one meeting between the two figures, according to reports.

By Agence France Presse and Reuters

Published On 28 Sep 202628 Sep 2026

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei is scheduled for a one-on-one dinner with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

The Sunday evening meeting, confirmed by Trump, follows months of open conflict between the artificial intelligence startup and the administration.

According to US media reports, including Axios, which first broke the news, this private dinner represents the first one-on-one meeting between the two men.

Trump confirmed the dinner on Sunday evening and reaffirmed his opposition to slowing the pace of artificial intelligence development.

Trump also reiterated his belief that new regulations would allow China to outpace the United States in AI advancement.

While acknowledging Amodei’s concern that rapid AI development could expand risks, Trump argued that it is more crucial for the US to maintain a technological edge over China.

“We are maybe a year and a half ahead of China,” Trump told Fox News while attending the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Illinois.

“We are leading, and we are building tremendous assets worth trillions of dollars. Why should we give that up?”

The meeting comes two days after a federal appeals court upheld the Pentagon’s decision to classify Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” a designation that prohibits the US military from using its models.

The startup was sanctioned by the Trump administration after it refused in February to allow its tools to be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.

Trump also criticized Amodei, claiming he was trying to be “a perfect little angel” after the Anthropic chief called for a pause in AI development.

Amodei was absent from the state dinner held for Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, which was attended by AI industry leaders, including Amodei’s rival, Sam Altman of OpenAI.

Despite mounting calls to slow AI development due to the risk of losing control of the technology, the US government believes that the sector’s major players—including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta—cannot afford to slow down, fearing China will gain the upper hand.

Trump and Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, are scheduled to meet with leading AI executives on Tuesday.

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