Elon Musk embraces Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Oct. 5, 2024.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, NBC News reported Tuesday.
They might be seated on the platform near Cabinet officials and elected leaders, based on an individual conversant in the planning of the inauguration who spoke to NBC News.
The distinguished attendance of several tech luminaries and billionaires at Trump’s inauguration signals how quickly the technology industry leadership has warmed as much as Trump as he takes his second term as president.
During Trump’s first term, Bezos often clashed with the president over his ownership of The Washington Post, Amazon’s relationship with the U.S. Postal Service and the way much tax the tech company paid. Zuckerberg also traded barbs with Trump, particularly over immigration and misinformation.
But as Trump takes office for a second time, the technology industry has contributed to his inaugural fund and several other CEOs have praised Trump and offered well wishes for his administration.
Musk has joined Trump’s administration in a job overseeing a forthcoming advisory board dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency that’s looking to search out government waste and cut it. He’s also frolicked with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Amazon and Meta have contributed $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund. Google also contributed $1 million, CNBC reported last week. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman contributed $1 million, and so has Apple CEO Tim Cook, based on a Axios report that the tech company has not commented on.
Reps for Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos didn’t immediately comment to NBC News.
