Zuckerberg caught on hot mic telling Trump ‘I wasn’t sure’ how much to promise to spend on AI in the US

Mark Zuckerberg has certainly come a long way in his relationship with President Donald Trump. Almost exactly a year after the president threatened the Meta CEO with imprisonment, the two sat side-by-side at a White House dinner, alongside numerous other tech CEOs.

The nearly three dozen CEOs and execs in attendance took turns praising and thanking Trump. But Zuckerberg’s comments were especially notable. In one moment that was widely shared on social media, Trump turns to Zuckerberg and asks “how much are you spending, would say, over the next few years?” Zuckerberg responded that it was “probably going to be something like, I don’t know, at least $600 billion through [20]28 in the US.” Trump seemed to approve. “That’s a lot, thank you Mark, it’s great to have you.”  

But it was a hot mic moment captured later between the two that was especially telling. Zuckerberg, turning to Trump, apologizes and says “sorry, I wasn’t ready …I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with.” 

You can watch the whole moment play out in the clip below:

While Zuckerberg has spent the last year trying to curry favor with Trump, their interactions show just how much those efforts have been paying off. A year ago, the then-former president was threatening the Facebook founder with jail time. Now, after donating $1 million to his inauguration, changing Meta’s policies and renouncing DEI, adding a pro-Trump booster to his board, paying $25 million to settle a four-year-old lawsuit  and several private meetings, the two seem to have patched things up. Not only is Zuckerberg promising to spend massive amounts on money in the US on AI infrastructure, he’s seemingly confirming that Trump approves of the specific number.

The Meta CEO later addressed the hot mic moment in a post on Threads. He said that “ it’s quite possible we’ll invest even more “ and that he had briefed the president on Meta’s potential spending through 2028 and “the end of the decade.”

“I wasn’t sure which number he was asking about, so I just shared the lower number through ’28 and clarified with him afterwards,” he wrote.

Update, September 6, 2025, 10:28 AM PT: This post has been updated to add comments from Mark Zuckerberg.