- President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in on Monday for the second time and the three richest men in the world—who have previously feuded among themselves and with Trump—will be there together to witness the event.
The three wealthiest men in the world will be in attendance at Donald Trump’s inauguration, according toNBC, which cited an official involved in the planning: Elon Musk; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who Trump once called “Jeff Bozo;” and Mark Zuckerberg, whom Trump previously threatened to send to prison for life.
There’s more nuance to the tensions of the past, too. Musk once challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match that never happened. Musk and Bezos are in a space race via their companies SpaceX and Blue Origin. Notably, Bezos and Zuckerberg appear to be cordial.
The billionaires will be seated together on the platform among the president-elect’s cabinet nominees (some of whom are undergoing confirmation hearings this week) and other elected officials, NBC reported. The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, reported the trio would be seated together, too, alongside family, citing a Trump official.
On X, Musk responded to a post about the tech billionaires and their plum spot for the inauguration next week, simply writing: “Honored.” Their combined net worth—Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg—is roughly $874 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Meta, Amazon, Tesla, and the Trump inaugural team did not immediately respond to Coins2Day’s request for comment.
For his part, Zuckerberg is also co-hosting a black-tie reception on Monday with Republican donors to celebrate the inauguration, multiple outlets reported. Since Trump’s victory, the Meta chief executive and the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner seem to have been attempting inroads with the new president. Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Amazon previously said it plans to donate $1 million, too. Amazon will stream the inauguration on its Prime video platform.
At the New York Times Dealbook summit, Bezos was optimistic about another Trump administration. “I’m very hopeful—he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation,” Bezos said.
In Meta’s case, it elected Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White who is a longtime friend of Trump to its board of directors, along with John Elkann, executive chair of Ferrari and Stellantis, and tech investor Charlie Songhurst.
Bezos and Zuckerberg have both reportedly dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, as well. Trump said it himself, “everybody wants to be my friend.”
They aren’t the only ones who appear to be attempting to get on the former and future president’s good side. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has said he’d make a personal donation of $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, as has Citadel founder Ken Griffin. Trump has reportedly raised $200 million since his election, mostly for his record-breaking inaugural fund, and his team reportedly expects to raise $500 million by the summer.