A photograph captured during the event showed Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk using smartphones. Pichai was seen with what appeared to be Google's latest Pixel 9 series (which makes sense for the Google boss), while Musk held an iPhone 16 Pro — a surprising choice considering Musk's past criticism of Apple.

“There are rumors that Elon Musk has again challenged Mark Zuckerberg for a fight,” joked an X user and shared the photo. “For Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai, phone is way more important than President Trump,” commented another. A third joked, “These kids and their damn phones.”

There are already signs that Elon Musk’s marriage of convenience to President Donald Trump could be a fraught union. Musk turned more than a few heads by taking the lead on defeating a government spending bill last month — Trump doesn’t like being overshadowed — and undercutting a just-announced White House AI project last week.