Musk, Bezos, Arnault And More

Monday 20th January 2025 03:01 PM

Topline

Big-name billionaires worth a collective $1.2 trillion—including four of the five richest men in the world—attended the inauguration of President Donald Trump Monday morning as many looked to strengthen their relationship with the pro-business president as he takes office. (Follow here for Inauguration Day updates.)

(L-R) Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk … [+] attend the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump on Jan, 20, 2025.

POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The world’s three wealthiest people attended multiple inauguration morning events: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (worth $239.4 billion according to Forbes’ estimates), Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg ($211.8 billion) and Elon Musk ($433.9 billion), the Tesla CEO, world’s richest person and presidential confidant who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win November’s election.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ($1.1 billion) and Apple CEO Tim Cook ($2.2 billion), who donated money to the inauguration, were in the Capitol Rotunda Monday morning, as was billionaire backer Miriam Adelson ($31.9 billion) and former Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch ($22.2 billion).

Bernard Arnault ($179.6 billion), the head of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury empire and the richest person in France, was at the inauguration with his son, Alexandre.

Mukesh Ambani ($98.1 billion), the richest man in India, reportedly attended inauguration events, and Trump’s friend Phil Ruffina Las Vegas casino executive worth $4.7 billion, was also spotted at the Capitol, according to The New York Times.

Several billionaires and their spouses have been offered top roles in the Trump administration, including Howard Lutnick ($1.5 billion) and Vivek Ramaswamy ($1 billion), both of whom were seen at the inauguration.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong ($12.8 billion) was invited to inauguration-related events, according to Bloomberg, but hadn’t yet been seen as of the swearing in.

Other billionaires who have been offered jobs in the administration, but their attendance wasn’t confirmed, include Stephen Feinberg ($5 billion), Warren Stephens ($3.4 billion), Jared Isaacman ($1.9 billion), Steve Witkoff ($1 billion), Linda McMahon (husband Vince McMahon is worth $3 billion) and Kelly Loeffler (husband Jeff Speaker is worth $1.1 billion).

Zuckerberg co-hosted a pre-Inaugural Ball reception for Trump alongside Adelson, Tilman Fertitta ($10.2 billion) and Todd Ricketts, whose father J. Joe Ricketts and family are worth an estimated $4.2 billion.

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How Much Is Trump Worth?

Trump himself is worth an estimated $6.7 billion thanks to his stake in Truth Social’s parent company, his real estate investments and other assets.

What Other Billionaires Could Attend?

Dozens of other billionaires also supported Trump on his road to a second term who haven’t been confirmed as attendees, including Robert “Woody” Johnson ($3.3 billion), Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein (each worth $5.9 billion), Roger Penske ($6.5 billion) and Timothy Mellon (family was worth $14.1 billion).

Did Billionaires Like Musk, Bezos And Zuckerberg Back Trump’s Campaign?

Some of them did, but others either stayed out of the presidential race or were Trump foes before they started trying to make nice. Zuckerberg’s Meta previously banned Trump from Instagram and Facebook—and Trump once threatened to send him to prison—before he fell in line following the election results. Since then, Zuckerberg has donated $1 million to his inaugural fund, met with Trump at Mar-A-Lago, made changes to how its platforms fact-check posts and put Trump’s friend Dana White on Meta’s board. In the leadup to the election, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate but did call Trump’s response to his assassination attempt “badass.” Bezos also has a history of clashing with Trump: Amazon in 2019 blamed Trump’s “personal dislike” of Bezos for losing a multibillion-dollar cloud computing contract with the Pentagon, and Trump has been critical of the Bezos-owned Washington Post. Bezos didn’t endorse Trump last year but said he “showed tremendous grace and courage under literal fire” following the assassination attempt, and donated $1 million to the inaugural fund. Others have supported him all along. Musk is among Trump’s biggest donors, alongside Adelson, the widow of billionaire Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson, who donated $100 million to the pro-Trump super PAC Preserve America during the election. Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and Landry’s restaurant group, has been nominated to serve as U.S. ambassador to Italy after the Texas billionaire hosted a fundraiser for Trump last year. Ricketts, a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, has been a major fundraiser for Republican politicians and, while he initially fundraised within the party against Trump during his first campaign, he ultimately went on to spearhead pro-Trump fundraising in 2020 and last year.

Tangent

Other corporate leaders planned on attending the inauguration, including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, according to the Wall Street Journal. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended, after his platform took itself offline Sunday due to a nationwide ban taking effect—and restored service when Trump vowed to delay the ban upon taking office. Other supporters are throwing events around Washington over inauguration weekend, including an “Inaugural Crypto Ball” that featured Snoop Dogg and a party held by Uber and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. James Quincey, CEO of Coca-Cola Company, on Tuesday presented Trump with the “first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle.” Microsoft, Ford, Google and AI search startup Perplexity also donated $1 million to the inaugural fund. Ripple, a crypto company, gave $5 million worth of its cryptocurrency to the inaugural committee. Other major donors include Goldman Sachs, Intuit, Toyota, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, General Motors, Bank of America, AT&T and Stanley Black & Decker, the Journal reported.

Big Number

More than $170 million. That’s how much Trump’s inaugural fund is believed to have raised, almost three times as much as the $62 million raised by President Joe Biden four years ago and well above the previous record of $107 million, set by Trump’s 2016 inauguration. Donors who gave $1 million, or raised $2 million from others, were reportedly given six tickets to a series of events in the days leading up to the inauguration, including a “candlelight dinner” with Trump and Melania Trump and a black-tie ball.