SAN FRANCISCO - US President Barack Obama was briefed by his advisers late on Thursday on Britain's vote to leave the European Union, a result that he had argued passionately against during an April visit to London.

Obama, who was scheduled to deliver remarks to global entrepreneurs at a conference at Stanford University at 10:45 am PDT (1:45 pm ET/1745 GMT), was dining out at an upscale restaurant with a small group of top venture capitalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as the results for the "leave" campaign began to roll in.

The group at San Francisco's Twenty-Five Lusk included John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, and LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman.

Obama dined for more than two hours, departing shortly after British networks called the referendum for the "leave" campaign, and markets plunged. A White House official said Obama had been briefed on the returns and would "continue to be updated by his team as the situation warrants."