Trump to meet with valley tech leaders

Cisco, Oracle and other execs invited by aides to transition team

“As leaders of organizations representing the world’s most dynamic technology companies, we are committed to moving the country forward.”

President-elect Donald Trump is known for making headlines with his social media posts, but apparently when it comes to meeting tech leaders, he still prefers communicating the old-fashioned way: in person.

The Republican politician reached out to tech leaders to attend a “roundtable” in New York on Dec. 14. Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff; Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law; and Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor who’s part of his transition team, signed the invite, according to USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. An agenda for the meeting hasn’t been released.

San Jose tech firm Cisco Systems confirmed to this newspaper Tuesday that Chuck Robbins, its chief executive, has been invited and plans to attend.

Oracle confirmed that co-CEO Safra Catz will be there, too.

Intel and LinkedIn declined to comment. Other tech firms such as Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, Tesla Motors and Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s press office also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many Silicon Valley tech moguls supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential election, fueling tension between Trump and some of the world’s largest tech firms.

Robbins, who is a Republican, told CNN in March that he wanted a leader who could bring people together and was leaning toward backing Clinton.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also has publicly said she supported Clinton.

Trump, however, has been critical of valley tech companies as well. After Apple refused to help federal law enforcement authorities unlock the iPhone used by a shooter in the 2015 San Bernardino attacks, Trump called for a boycott of all Apple products.

During the election, Trump also accused Twitter, Google and Facebook of burying news about the investigation into Clinton’s private email server, calling them “very dishonest media” in a tweet.

Meanwhile, there are fears that Trump’s administration will crack down on H-1B visas, threatening the foreign workforce on which many Bay Area companies rely, and that he will oppose net neutrality.

But if Trump increases defense spending, that could benefit Bay Area tech firms that supply hardware or software used by the military, said the UCLA Anderson Forecast report, released Tuesday.

Last week, Trump also announced the creation of a business advisory council called the “President’s Strategic and Policy Forum” that will be chaired by Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of investment firm Blackstone Group. IBM, the Walt Disney Co., General Motors and other major companies were part of the forum, but Silicon Valley tech firms were not included in the list of partners.

Trade groups that represent tech firms have been reaching out to Trump after he won the presidential election.

In November, the Consumer Technology Association, the Internet Association, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and other trade organizations sent a letter to Trump asking him to consider principles that they say will foster growth and innovation nationwide. That included investing in more jobs, tax reform and regulations to spur the growth of startups.

“As leaders of organizations representing the world’s most dynamic technology companies, we are committed to moving the country forward toward a brighter economic future,” the letter said.

— From letter to President-elect Donald Trump