Nvidia and Apple each pledged $25 million to Trump's White House ballroom

Nvidia $NVDA and Apple $AAPL each committed $25 million to President Donald Trump's planned White House ballroom, according to The Washington Post, with total private contributions reaching $333 million, according to Reuters.

The Adelson family and Charles Ergen, co-founder and chairman of Dish Network, also committed $25 million each, according to the Post. The list excludes Trump himself.

Lockheed Martin $LMT, Microsoft $MSFT and Palantir $PLTR Technologies each gave $10 million, according to the Post. Amazon $AMZN, Meta $META Platforms and ServiceNow $NOW made contributions in the millions as well. Cisco $CSCO confirmed a $5 million donation, according to CNBC.

According to the Post, half of all donations came from businesses or their executives that had held federal contracts at some point in Trump's second term. Post records revealed 67 separate contributions exceeding $10,000 through late September. Donations went through a nonprofit trust, and donors received a pledge form for the "Donald J. Trump Ballroom."

An Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC: "As an American company, our support for the United States is paramount, and independent of any business interests." The spokesperson added that the contribution went to a nonpartisan trust benefiting all Americans. Microsoft, Meta, and Apple declined to comment.

The White House will release no information about the donors, spokesman Davis Ingle told Reuters. He said the donors "represent a wide array of great American companies." "The same critics who are alleging fake conflicts of interests would also complain if American taxpayers were footing the bill for these long-overdue renovations," Ingle said.

The fundraising methods and disclosure practices surrounding the project have faced pushback from watchdog groups and legal experts. "The secrecy is a huge problem," said Eric Petry of the Brennan Center for Justice. "When people with business before the government can give millions to the president's pet project, and the public can't see who or how much, there's no way to tell whether they're buying access or favors."

Democratic lawmakers have demanded answers from five tech firms about their ballroom donations. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Dave Min led the effort with letters to the CEOs of Nvidia, Meta, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. The letters ask about the timing of the donations, the companies' business before the federal government, whether Trump aides discussed the contributions and whether the firms will receive tax benefits. Warren and Min wrote that a donation made to influence government decisions "could run afoul of federal bribery law."

Trump had said he and wealthy donors would pay for the estimated $400 million project. He sought $1 billion from Congress for an underground bunker and security features, a request that failed. In August, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to permit the project to move forward as Trump contests a court order seeking to stop much of the development.