Apple and Nvidia each gave $25 million toward President Donald Trump's planned White House ballroom, making the two tech giants the joint top corporate donors to the $333 million project, according to a Washington Post investigation published on Thursday that obtained a leaked internal fundraising spreadsheet.
What the leaked donor list reveals
The Post, reporting by Jonathan O'Connell, Sarah Blaskey and Aaron Schaffer, obtained a spreadsheet recording 67 donations above $10,000 made through late September 2026, along with payment arrangements and secrecy requests. The four $25 million donors were Nvidia, Apple, the Adelson Family Foundation and Dish Network co-founder Charles Ergen.
Other major donors include Google with $22 million, paid through a trust holding settlement funds from Trump's YouTube lawsuit, and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation with more than $20 million. Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Palantir and RHI II LLC each gave $10 million; Comcast gave $7.5 million; and Amazon, Meta, Cisco, T-Mobile and ServiceNow each gave $5 million. The crypto industry contributed $18.1 million in total, including $5.1 million from the Winklevoss twins.
At least $77 million came from donors who requested anonymity. And Donald Trump himself is not on the donor list, despite saying last year, days after East Wing demolition began, that the project was "being paid for a hundred percent by me and some friends of mine."
The 90,000-square-foot ballroom
The ballroom is planned as a 90,000-square-foot (8,360 sq m) venue seating 1,000 guests, built on the site of the historic East Wing, which housed the first lady's offices and the White House movie theater before demolition began in fall 2025.
The initial estimate was $400 million, all privately funded. Trump later unsuccessfully asked Congress for $1 billion for an underground bunker and security hardening, and the projected total cost has climbed to $600 million, with taxpayers covering part of it. In August 2026, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow construction to continue while Trump challenges a judicial order that would halt much of the development; Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, calling the project "likely unlawful."
The pay-to-play questions
The Post found that the "vast majority" of funds came from companies or individuals with interests before the federal government, with about half from firms or executives holding federal contracts in Trump's second term. Ethics watchdogs told the Post that anonymous, multimillion-dollar gifts to the president's pet project make it impossible to tell whether donors are buying access or favors.
Outlets noted striking timing in two cases: Nvidia's donation came about three months before the company struck a deal with Trump to sell advanced chips to China, and Ergen's two $12.5 million installments followed the FCC ending its probe of his company EchoStar and approving its license sale to AT&T. The Post explicitly said its reporting does not establish a link between the donations and any government actions.
Nvidia said it was proud to donate to a nonpartisan trust serving all Americans and that the gift was independent of any business interests; Apple declined to comment. White House spokesman Davis Ingle declined to release donor information, argued critics would complain if taxpayers footed the bill instead, and said the White House would "relentlessly pursue those responsible for this cowardly leak."
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Lightless Dawn (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: CNA (Reuters), Live Mint, 9to5Mac, Hindustan Times.