Nvidia and Cisco Confirm Millions in Donations to White House Ballroom Project
Tech firms including Apple, Nvidia, and Cisco contributed to a $330 million private trust renovating the White House ballroom amid scrutiny over policy influence.
Major technology companies have committed multimillion-dollar contributions toward a White House ballroom renovation project, according to reporting by CNBC Business (https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/15/trump-ballroom-nvidia-cisco-donations.html).
Nvidia and Apple each pledged $25 million to the initiative, ranking among the largest contributions to a project fund that has surpassed $330 million overall, according to documentation first reported by The Washington Post. Networking hardware vendor Cisco confirmed it donated $5 million.
"As an American company, our support for the United States is paramount, and independent of any business interests," an Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC Business. "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."
Other tech companies named as multimillion-dollar donors in the disclosures include Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, and ServiceNow, alongside HP Inc., Micron, Salesforce, and Vast Space. The funds were directed through a non-profit trust, where donors filled out pledge paperwork for the "Donald J. Trump Ballroom." Internal records revealed 67 contributions exceeding $10,000 as of late September.
Microsoft and Meta declined to comment on the report, while Amazon, Apple, HP, Micron, Palantir, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Vast Space did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The donations have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and ethics experts who have requested public disclosure of private contributors, raising questions over whether financial commitments could influence federal policy decisions, regulatory enforcement, or government contracting awards. Technology executives have largely backed the administration's light-touch approach to antitrust and regulation, with several companies securing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal artificial intelligence infrastructure and defense contracts.
Sources
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