Obama Talked R&D With Jobs, Zuckerberg

By JARED A. FAVOLE

Research spending and technology exports were some of the menu items Thursday evening when President Barack Obama sat down for dinner with corporate chieftains from Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc.

U.S. President Barack Obama dined with the technology elite, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs in San Francisco on Thursday night. Video courtesy of Fox News.

At the home of venture capitalist John Doerr just outside San Francisco, Mr. Obama met with Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Eric Schmidt, among others. The overall aim of the meeting was for Mr. Obama to discuss his competitiveness agenda, and to find new ways the government and private sector can work together to lift the shaky economy.

Things did get specific, however. "The president specifically discussed his proposals to invest in research and development and expand incentives for companies to grow and hire," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to reporters traveling with the president.

The president's budget, released this week, included billions of dollars for new R&D spending. Mr. Obama has also secured a measure to allow businesses to fully expense business investing for 2011.

Dinner at the Doerrs

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President Barack Obama joins a toast with technology executives including Apple's Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg at a dinner in Woodside, California, Feb. 17, 2011.

Mr. Obama's meeting with the technology executives fits into his renewed effort in recent months to work closely with the private sector on ways to lift the economy. Mr. Obama vowed, in a speech earlier this month to business leaders, that he would knock down barriers to growth. He said he needed the private sector's help to revamp the corporate tax code, expand the economy and make government run more efficiently.

It is unclear how specific discussions got on areas such as taxes. The business community, and technology companies in particular, have raised concerns about Mr. Obama's proposal to boost taxes on overseas income.

Mr. Carney told reporters the CEOs and Mr. Obama also discussed ways to encourage kids to study math, science and engineering.

Mr. Obama will be in the company of more technology executives Friday. He is heading to Oregon from California Friday afternoon to tour an Intel Corp. semiconductor plant. Mr. Obama is expected to announce during brief remarks that Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini, will join the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

List of attendees at the dinner Thursday evening:

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•John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

• Carol Bartz, President and CEO, Yahoo Inc.

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems Inc.

•Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter Inc.

• Larry Ellison, Co-Founder and CEO, Oracle Corp.

• Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix Inc.

•John Hennessy, President, Stanford University

•Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO, Apple Inc.

• Art Levinson, Chairman and former CEO, Genentech Inc.

•Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google Inc.

•Steve Westly, Managing Partner and Founder, The Westly Group

•Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook Inc.