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 will be seated on the platform near Cabinet officials and elected leaders, according to a person familiar with the planning of the inauguration who spoke to NBC News.
The prominent attendance of several tech luminaries and billionaires at Trump’s inauguration signals how quickly the technology industry leadership has warmed up to Trump as he takes his second term as president.
During Trump’s first term, Bezos regularly clashed with the president over his ownership of The Washington Post, Amazon’s relationship with the U.S. Postal Service and how 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 CEOs have praised Trump and offered well wishes for his administration.
Musk has joined Trump’s administration in a role overseeing a forthcoming advisory board dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency that is looking to find government waste and cut it. He’s also spent time 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, according to a Axios report that the tech company has not commented on.
Reps for Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos didn’t immediately comment to NBC News.
