Donald Trump was recently sworn in as the 47th President-elect of the United States. The 78-year-old’s return to the White House has drawn a guest list filled with prominent political and tech leaders from around the world for his inauguration ceremony.
The event started with the church service at the St Johns Church. While it is only a small part of the Inauguration Day, it quickly turned into a parade of some of the wealthiest and influential people in the world.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been openly endorsing Donald Trump for quite some time now. The multi-billionaire has gotten close to Trump in the last few months and has directly donated around $300 million to his campaign. While Elon was expected to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE for short) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, the latter has dropped his name to run for governor.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had criticized the President-elect, but now it looks like the relationship between the two has been softening a bit. While Zuckerberg has typically shied away from politics and did not publicly endorse anyone in the 2020 and 2024 elections, the Meta CEO did donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos, who also owns Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper. Bezos was spotted sitting alongside Musk and Zuckerberg, with the trio sitting in front of Trump’s defense secretary pick – Pete Hegseth.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has had a rocky relationship with Trump during his first term when he threatened to break up the tech giant or shut it down. However, it looks like things might rapidly change in the coming months, as Trump is expected to dial down the antitrust case against Google pursued under former President Joe Biden. Like Meta, Google also donated $1 million to Trump’s fund.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was also spotted at Trump’s inauguration. The OpenAI head has personally donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund in the hope that he might help the artificial intelligence startup in the future.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been on friendly terms with the United States President. Like Sam Altman, Cook also personally donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund with Trump saying that Apple is planning a “massive investment” now that he is once again in the White House.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew also marked his attendance at Trump’s inaugural ceremony. While the United States Supreme Court upheld the law which would ban TikTok in the country, President Donald Trump has ordered the federal government to give the Chinese video sharing platform a couple of months to broker a deal.
