Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sparked a wave of mockery this week after he was caught on a hot mic suggesting to President Donald Trump he plucked a number out of his head, adding, “I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with.”
Zuckerberg joined Trump at a White House tech event on Thursday evening and sat next to the president. Trump asked Zuckerberg about Meta’s upcoming investments in AI infrastructure, “How much are you spending, would you say, over the next few years?”
“Oh gosh. I mean, I think it’s probably going to be something like, I don’t know, at least $600 billion through ’28 in the US,” Zuckerberg replied.
Later on a hot mic, Zuckerberg told Trump, “I’m sorry I wasn’t ready to do our– I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with.”
Throughout the event, Zuckerberg and the other tech titans present praised Trump and thanked him for hosting the event.
The friendly exchange between Trump and Zuckerberg is a far cry from Trump’s past rhetoric toward the tech leader, having regularly accused him of election-related crimes in the past. ” We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump threatened in August of 2024.
The hot mic moment quickly went viral online after it was clipped and edited together by influencers, including Acyn, and led to a bevy of criticism of the business leader for so explicitly deferring to the president.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) shared the clip and wrote, “It’s embarrassing how far Tech Billionaires will go to suck up to Trump. Now they are just making up numbers while screwing over the American People.”
Veteran reporter Paul Farhi added, “As June 30, Meta’s assets were valued at $295 billion. So $600 billion presupposes borrowing more than twice its book value. For *one year* of capital investment. It’s about the most ludicrous statement the CEO of a publicly traded company can make.”
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