By Mackenzie Hawkins
Silicon Valley’s greatest names descended on Washington Thursday as President Joe Biden sought to strengthen tech business ties between the US and India at a state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On the White Home, company executives attending the occasion included Apple Inc. Chief Govt Officer Tim Prepare dinner, Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft Corp. chief Satya Nadella. They have been joined by celebrities together with Billie Jean King and Ralph Lauren on the third state dinner of Biden’s presidency.
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Restricted; Basic Electrical Co. CEO Larry Culp; Boeing Co. CEO David Calhoun; Bain Capital’s Josh Bekenstein; Flex CEO Revathi Advaithi; and Sam Altman of OpenAI additionally landed coveted invites to the lavish occasion, celebrating Modi’s first official state go to to the US.
Among the many celebrities from the leisure world have been filmmaker M. Evening Shyamalan, Netflix Inc. Chief Content material Officer Bela Bajaria, and media scion James Murdoch.
The presence of company executives at Thursday’s occasion highlighted Modi’s efforts to determine India as a producing and expertise accomplice for the US, a part of a broader effort to ramp up New Delhi’s diplomatic and financial engagements across the globe.
Additionally on the dinner have been members of the president’s household, together with his son, Hunter Biden, days after he struck a plea settlement over federal tax and gun prices.
To accommodate Modi, a vegetarian, First Girl Jill Biden labored with visitor chef Nina Curtis, a Sacramento, California-based culinary artist recognized for her progressive plant-based delicacies, to construct the menu.
Company are eating on a marinated millet and grilled corn kernel salad and compressed watermelon for the primary course. The principle course consists of stuffed portobello mushrooms and a creamy saffron-induced risotto. Attendees even have the choice of requesting a sumac-roasted sea bass. For dessert, the friends will dine on rose and cardamom-infused strawberry shortcake.
Additionally on the dinner have been Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano; former American Categorical Co. CEO Kenneth Chenault; Utilized Supplies CEO Gary Dickerson; Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Know-how Inc.
The night’s leisure will probably be offered by Joshua Bell, a Grammy-award successful American violinist and conductor; Penn Masala, a South Asian a cappella group based by college students on the College of Pennsylvania; and the USA Marine Band Chamber Orchestra.
At a joint press convention earlier Thursday, US President Joe Biden and Modi touted a sequence of economic offers spanning the expertise, aerospace and protection industries, together with an settlement for Basic Electrical and state-owned Indian firm Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. to collectively manufacture F414 engines for light-combat plane; a deal for MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones made by Basic Atomics; and Micron’s plans for a $2.75 billion semiconductor meeting and testing facility in India.
India is vying to grow to be a key US accomplice in semiconductor chip manufacturing and different essential expertise. Excessive on the agenda for Modi’s go to was eradicating regulatory constraints in India, significantly for tech corporations, in a bid to make it simpler for US corporations to spend money on the subcontinent.
Earlier within the week, Modi courted Elon Musk, who mentioned after assembly the prime minister that Tesla Inc. is contemplating a big funding in India.
All through the journey, Modi and Biden have emphasised comity and partnership even because the US and India diverge over points starting from human rights to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Delhi has refused to sentence. The farthest Modi would go in his criticism of the US method to Ukraine was a light jab in a speech he delivered to Congress earlier than the state dinner.
“I’ll now say it immediately and publicly — this isn’t an period of battle however one in every of dialogue and diplomacy and all of us should do what we are able to to cease bloodshed and human struggling,” Modi mentioned within the speech.
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