Silicon Valley CEOs Dine With Spain's Prime Minister at HP Garage

PALO ALTO, CA — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez paid a visit to the Hewlett Packard Garage in Palo Alto last Friday for a power lunch meeting with top executives in Silicon Valley to discuss ways to advance technology in Spain.

Attendees included the CEOs of Zoom, Intel, LinkedIn, Hewlett Packard, Paypal and Qualcomm. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sanchez — who also visited Los Angeles and New York — said he wanted to attract foreign investors to Spain.

“It’s important to have conversations between the public and private sector,” Sanchez told Bloomberg. “So far, what I think the companies appreciate from the Spanish government is that we have a vision. We have a plan to get them involved in the long-term transformation and modernization of my country.”

Specifically, Sanchez pointed to a potential partnership with Cupertino-based Apple on artificial intelligence.

“All the conversations that I had with global companies during this day, the insight and feeling that I got is they count on Spain,” Sanchez said. “They see that Spain is a safe country with a good quality of life and an affordable and competitive in prices. So I think that we have a great opportunity for both my country and for all these foreign investors and companies.”

Lunch was provided by Teleferic Barcelona, a Barcelona-based restaurant with Bay Area locations in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek and another opening soon in Los Gatos. The menu included lobster paella, galician octopus and cured ham from the Iberian Peninsula.

Click here to watch the full interview with Bloomberg.