Tech billionaires take centre stage at Trump inauguration

WASHINGTON – US tech multi-billionaires – including Mr Elon Musk, Mr Mark Zuckerberg and Mr Jeff Bezos – were given prime positions at

Mr Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20

, in an unprecedented demonstration of their power and influence.

Mr Musk, Mr Bezos and Mr Zuckerberg are the world’s three richest people, and in addition to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who also attended, their combined fortune sits at just above US$1 trillion (S$1.36 trillion), according to Forbes.

The tech tycoons have spent the weeks since the election courting favour with Mr Trump, marking a dramatic shift from Silicon Valley’s more hostile response to his first term four years ago.

Attendees also included Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi sat in the back row on the stage, even as his platform’s future remains uncertain.

TikTok on Jan 19

credited Mr Trump for promising an executive order to save the app

from an American ban, though its fate in the United States remains unclear while under Chinese company ByteDance’s ownership, in defiance of a US law.

Despite highly limited seating after the ceremony was moved indoors owing to bad weather, Meta CEO Zuckerberg attended with his wife Priscilla Chan, while Amazon executive chairman Bezos was accompanied by his fiancee Lauren Sanchez.

“They have even better seats than Trump’s own Cabinet picks. That says it all,” said US Senator Elizabeth Warren in a social media post.

Their prominent positions on the inauguration stage were particularly notable for Mr Zuckerberg, whom Mr Trump had threatened with life imprisonment just months ago.

The Meta chief recently made headlines by brashly aligning his company’s policies with Mr Trump’s world view, notably by

eliminating fact-checking in the United States

and relaxing hate speech restrictions on Facebook and Instagram.

Mr Musk has shown the strongest support for Mr Trump, spending US$277 million to help him and other Republicans win November’s election while transforming his X platform into an amplifier for pro-Trump voices.

Mr Bezos, like Mr Zuckerberg and his peers, has visited Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida leading up to the inauguration, with favourable treatment, government contracts and reduced regulatory scrutiny for Amazon in the balance.

As owner of The Washington Post, Mr Bezos sparked controversy by blocking the newspaper’s planned endorsement of Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election, triggering newsroom protests and subscriber cancellations.

Mr Musk has been named a leader of the so-called

Department of Government Efficiency

to advise the White House on cutbacks to public spending and has spent much of the past two months at Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Musk’s SpaceX is already a major government contractor, while Amazon’s AWS cloud computing division and Google count the US government among their biggest clients.

Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon are also fighting landmark antitrust lawsuits from the US government that could force their break-up.

“These are very wealthy people who have basically paid for access, which is something that they would do for any upcoming administration even if we all recognise Trump is very transactional,” said media professor Andrew Selepak of the University of Florida.

“They’re making sure it’s very clear that their faces, names, and especially their money, are here,” Dr Selepak added. AFP