Tech meeting to feature key players

Executives to talk with Trump

Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk will be among those attending President-elect Donald Trump’s gathering of technology industry leaders Wednesday in New York, people familiar with the matter said.

An invitation to the meeting went out last week from members of Trump’s transition team, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, Cisco Systems’s Chuck Robbins and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg plan to attend. Alphabet’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt will be there too, according to a person familiar with the matter. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty — who is on Trump’s advisory panel of business leaders — will also attend, said a person familiar with her plans.

While support for Trump was thin among technology executives during the presidential campaign, Bezos and Trump clashed the most publicly. The Amazon founder mockingly tweeted that he would send the Republican candidate to space on one of his rockets, and Trump accused Bezos of purchasing The Washington Post to gain political influence in the nation’s capital to help his growing ecommerce empire. The Post is in a business relationship with Bloomberg News.

Bezos is doing the responsible thing for Amazon shareholders in attending the summit even though it promises to be a “groveling session made for reality TV,” said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities.

“Bezos has to participate because he and his company were singled out,” Pachter said. “He has to be honorable and protect his shareholders.”

Technology leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond had openly signaled an uneasiness with Trump, with most favoring Hillary Clinton.