Google CEO Sundar Pichai thanked President Donald Trump on Thursday for the administration’s “constructive dialogue” related to its antitrust case that was resolved this week, according to several reports.
“You had a very good day yesterday,” Trump told Pichai at a White House meeting that included other tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook, according the Wall Street Journal “Do you want to talk about that big day you had yesterday?”
Trump was referring to Google’s stock going up after a judge ruled the company can keep Chrome and Android in a monopoly lawsuit, but must share data with rivals.
The ruling preserves Google’s role as the default search engine on iPhones, meaning users will not notice much change, but also keeps rivals like DuckDuckGo or Bing at a disadvantage.
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“I’m glad it’s over,” Pichai said, adding, “It was a long process. Appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue, and we were able to get it to some resolution,” according to the New York Post.
The U.S. Department of Justice under Trump brought an antitrust lawsuit against Google over its online search monopoly in October 2020, and the Biden administration continued to prosecute the lawsuit after his election.
Google was found last year to have an illegal monopoly.
Pichai added that he looked forward to working with the Trump administration on artificial intelligence initiatives, thanking Trump for his “leadership.”
Google has stated it plans to appeal the decision, but the lengthy process could take years before it will be required to act on the ruling.
“Judge Mehta is aware that the Supreme Court is the likely final destination for the case, and he has chosen remedies that stand a good chance of acceptance by the Court,” said William Kovacic, director of the competition law center at George Washington University.
This case is the biggest U.S. tech antitrust fight since Microsoft in the 1990s and will likely head to the Supreme Court. Google still faces separate challenges with its app store and ad business.
Fox Business’ Christina Shaw contributed to this report.
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