Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, during an interview at Anthropic headquarters in San Francisco, California, USA, on Thursday, April 30, 2026.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will join President Donald Trump for a private dinner at the White House on Sunday, marking the first one-on-one meeting between the two leaders, CNBC confirmed.
Amodei, like other tech moguls, was conspicuously absent from President Trump’s lavish state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: space x CEO Elon Musk Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was photographed rubbing elbows with government officials. Mr. Trump invited Mr. Amodei to a private dinner because of a conflict with his schedule, according to a person familiar with the details who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The meeting, first reported by Axios, comes at a high-stakes moment for Anthropic as it prepares for what is widely expected to be a blockbuster IPO. Amodei’s meeting with the president could be a valuable opportunity to defuse tensions, as the company’s volatile relationship with the Trump administration has been tense for much of last year.
“President Trump has made it clear: America will lead the world in superintelligence while protecting American consumers,” White House officials said in a statement in response to a CNBC investigation into Sunday’s dinner. “We will drive innovation, strengthen America’s competitiveness, and ensure this innovative technology works for the American people.”
Amodei drew the ire of President Trump earlier this month when he publicly urged the AI industry to slow down the pace of developing advanced models and better address potential risks. He unveiled a three-phase proposal that called for additional government oversight, infuriating the president despite receiving support from other industry leaders such as Altman and Musk.
“The only control, or ‘guardrail’, that AI needs is a strong and smart (high IQ!) president. America has that!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “The Trump administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing ‘stuff’ that is bad or could be bad, like Dario (human!) who is currently pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’. And we will continue to do so!”
Amodei was already in a difficult position with the president, having supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and been a vocal critic of Trump.
But before Mr. Amodei’s call for a slowdown rocked the tech industry, relations between Anthropic and the Trump administration appeared to be on the mend.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (left) and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (right) attend a state dinner hosted by President Donald Trump for Chinese President Xi Jinping in the East Room of the White House on September 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Brendan Smialowski AFP | Getty Images
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who imposed temporary export controls on two of the company’s newest models in June, told Axios earlier this month that Anthropic is “back on the right track.” He also hosted a Fireside Conversation with Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown at the G20 Innovation Ministers Meeting in North Carolina.
Mr. Brown, Anthropic’s chief computing officer, has taken a more active role in building liaison with the Trump administration in recent months. He reportedly replaced Amodei and led negotiations with the Department of Commerce over the Export Control Directive.
“We believe in Anthropic,” Lutnick said on the sidelines of the event.
The same day, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios told CNBC that the administration was “on track” with Antropic. He said the company is “openly” and actively sharing its models with the government as part of President Trump’s voluntary AI executive order.
But Mr. Antropic has had little success in winning over Pentagon officials.
Negotiations between the company and the Pentagon stalled in February after the two sides could not agree on how the military could use the model. The Pentagon wanted Anthropic to allow the military unfettered access to its models for all lawful purposes, but Anthropic wanted assurances that its technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
After negotiations broke down, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk, an unprecedented move because the company allegedly threatened U.S. national security. This designation prevents the U.S. military from using Anthropic models and also prevents defense contractors from using them in their work with Anthropic.
Anthropic sued the Trump administration to have its blacklisting removed, but the company was dealt a blow Friday when a panel of the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld the Pentagon’s lawsuit. The company may continue to file for reconsideration, and may even ask the Supreme Court to take up the case.
Emile Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, praised the ruling in a post about X.
“The hammer of justice has crushed @AnthropicAI’s argument,” Michael wrote on Friday. “Those are supply chain risks to the defense industrial base that serves @DeptofWar. Warfighters will sleep better knowing that private companies will not insert their voices into the chain of command. @SecWar was right!”
Secretary of Defense Hegseth accused Antropic of “duplicity” and claimed that the company “sought to forcefully subjugate the U.S. military” when negotiations broke down in February. He reaffirmed that position in a post to X on Friday.
“Confirm: @AnthropicAI = Supply Chain Risk,” Hegseth wrote. @DeptofWar is doing what’s right for the country and our warriors. ”
View: Press. Trump and the President. President Xi toasts at state dinner surrounded by US executives
