Nvidia and Cisco confirm multimillion-dollar donations to Trump's White House ballroom

TechPublished Thu, Oct 15 20263:42 PM EDTUpdated 10 Min AgoKey PointsBoth Nvidia and Cisco confirmed multimillion-dollar donations to President Donald Trump's White House ballroom project. Nvidia and Apple were the top tech donors to the ballroom, The Washington Post reported.Amazon, Palantir, ServiceNow, Meta Platforms and Microsoft also contributed multiple millions, according to The Post.Construction continues on a new helipad on the South Lawn of the White House and the East Wing ballroom on Aug. 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.Andrew Harnik | Getty ImagesTechnology giants Nvidia and Cisco have committed millions to President Donald Trump's White House ballroom renovation project, CNBC confirmed on Thursday. Nvidia and Apple each pledged $25 million to the project, according to a report from The Washington Post. Those were among the largest donations on the list, which totaled more than $330 million. "As an American company, our support for the United States is paramount, and independent of any business interests," a Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC. "We were proud to be able to make a donation to a nonpartisan trust that serves all Americans and have said so publicly since the donation was made."Amazon, Palantir, ServiceNow, Meta Platforms and Microsoft also contributed in the millions, according to The Post. Microsoft and Meta declined to comment on the report. Cisco confirmed its $5 million donation.Amazon, Apple, HP Inc., Micron, Palantir, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Vast Space, which were all listed as major donors in the report, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Post reported that the ballroom donations were sent through a nonprofit trust, and donors received a pledge form for donating to the "Donald J. Trump Ballroom." Lawmakers and experts have repeatedly called out donations to the project, requesting information on the private donors. Some have also raised concerns over the potential influence these commitments could have on policy decisions or any federal contract awards.Tech leaders have largely favored Trump's pro-business, light-touch approach to antitrust and regulation, and some companies have secured hundreds of millions in contracts through artificial intelligence infrastructure and defense deals during his second term.Tech leaders like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have been regulars at state dinners and meetings in Washington, and were central figures at the White House AI luncheon on Sept. 29.The documents obtained by The Post showed 67 contributions above $10,000 as of late September.Read the full story from The Washington Post here.Read more CNBC tech newsAmazon launches new Bee 'personal AI' devices that listen to conversationsNvidia CEO Jensen Huang urges U.S.-China dialogue on 'potentially dangerous' AIOpenAI sued by 8 states over ChatGPT safety concernsAnthropic's third-quarter revenue is said to hit $16.8 billion ahead of IPO