As Donald Trump raises his right hand to take the oath of office on Monday, the world’s three richest men — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — will be there to witness it.
The trio, who hold sway over companies worth trillions of dollars, will be joined in a freezing Washington by the likes of Open AI’s Sam Altman alongside throngs of lesser-known chief executives and investors hoping to curry favour with the president-elect or make amends for their former criticism.
Their pilgrimages to the US capital come as Trump’s inaugural committee looks on course to have raised a record sum from corporate donors and wealthy elites. Although final figures will not be disclosed for months, the committee is expected to smash the $107mn record set by Trump in 2017, when corporations scrambled to get in with the then-political neophyte.
Big Tech giants Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have donated at least a million dollars each over the past few weeks, while Apple’s Tim Cook has donated the same amount in a personal capacity. Uber and its chief executive donated $1mn each.
Century-old American carmakers and banks, the pharmaceutical lobby and the leaders of the nascent AI industry have all rowed in behind the president-elect. Altman, GM, Ford, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America have all donated to the inaugural committee, according to reports.
Trump allies and Wall Street are relishing the president-elect’s return to power, as his victory sent stocks soaring in expectation of extended tax cuts and widespread deregulation.
Brian Ballard, a top lobbyist and Trump fundraiser, called it “a very exciting time”.
“The divisiveness of eight years ago is largely gone,” he told the Financial Times. “It’s a wonderful moment for America.”
Pro-Trump fundraisers pitched potential donors on giving $1mn or more to secure six tickets for the swearing-in ceremony, four hotel rooms and two tickets to an “intimate dinner” with vice president-elect JD Vance on Saturday night.
“With average commitments coming in at the $1 million mark, our $50k-$500k packages won’t last much longer,” wrote a fundraiser in one message seen by the FT. “Contact me today to secure your spot and celebrate in style at one of our iconic D.C. venues! Do not delay!”
The private, black-tie “Crypto Ball” kicked off on Friday at the Andrew W Mellon Auditorium near the Washington Monument in a sign of the industry’s burgeoning political power, sparking jokes about the boom of rented tuxedos among the T-shirt crowd. Trump has picked industry-friendly appointees and promoted his family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
“If people knew who were coming I think it’d pump the price of Bitcoin,” said one Crypto Ball attendee said.
Another hot ticket on Friday night was a small dinner at a downtown Washington hotel hosted by super lobbyist Jeff Miller and featuring the president-elect’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
On Saturday, top donors will mingle with Vance and the incoming cabinet at a museum on the National Mall for a reception and black-tie dinner.
On the eve of the inauguration, Musk, who gave more than $250mn to Trump’s cause in 2024, will speak to the Maga faithful at the Capital One arena, according to NBC. The inaugural committee will then host a “candlelight dinner” at the National Building Museum across the street. Meanwhile X, Uber and The Free Press media organisation are scheduled to host a cocktail event nearby with a performance by country music singer Dierks Bentley.
On Monday, Trump will be sworn in as the 47th US president, making his vows over his mother’s Bible and another used by Abraham Lincoln in 1861. The ceremony at the US Capitol will feature country music singers Carrie Underwood and Lee Greenwood, who sells a $59.99 Bible endorsed by the president-elect.
Following Trump’s parade, Zuckerberg, who recently shook up his government affairs team and rolled back Meta’s fact-checking policies in likely overtures to Trump, will co-host a reception with billionaire GOP donor Miriam Adelson, Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and Chicago Cubs owner Todd Ricketts.
Some chief executives are staying away. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, who visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week, will not be attending the inauguration, according to a person close to him. Jensen Huang, the boss of chipmaker Nvidia, will be celebrating Lunar New Year with staff, while the leaders of AMD and Intel will also be elsewhere, their spokespeople said.
Lisa Gilbert, the co-president of progressive pressure group Public Citizen, predicted that Trump’s final inauguration haul would exceed $200mn and said donating was an “obvious way for corporations and special interests to try and influence the incoming administration”.
She added that executives were also seeking to stay out of the crosshairs of a “weaponised Department of Justice” that could go after the president-elect’s political enemies.
“It is a record-breaking swamp of special interests,” said Gilbert, echoing last week’s warning from departing president Joe Biden of a growing “oligarchy” in the US.
Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennet blasted the donations, writing to the chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Uber and OpenAI on Friday and noting their companies were under regulatory scrutiny from a variety of agencies in Washington.
“These donations raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money on the Trump administration, and Congress, and the public deserve answers,” they wrote.
Altman responded on X, the platform Musk owns, “funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to Democrats . . . ”.
additional reporting by Michael Acton and Cristina Criddle in San Francisco
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