Silicon Valley’s most prominent business leaders are expected to be in chilly Washington on Monday for President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration to warm relations with the incoming administration.
Tech titans including the leaders of Meta, Amazon, Google, Tesla, TikTok, Apple, Alphabet, and OpenAI are set to attend the festivities, according to a source familiar, despite shifting plans due to the forecast frigid temperatures.
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TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s attendance on Monday is especially noteworthy after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that could lead to an imminent ban of the popular social media app.
“He’s not my favorite guest to the Inauguration, but listen if he wants a job, if he wants to keep his job, I would suggest he go out there and sell his company,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), speaking to reporters on Friday.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a key adviser to Trump, had said he was “honored” in a post on his social platform X in response to a report that he would be seated alongside Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos during the ceremony. Seating arrangements for the inauguration could change after Trump announced the ceremony had been moved indoors.
“In many ways, I think the recognition and embrace of this new administration by Big Tech is a good thing because these companies have treated Republicans so unfairly and have essentially censored us for many years,” said a GOP consultant granted anonymity to speak freely. “Now, they finally understand that our values and our perspective is the way the majority of the country feels and that’s a powerful thing.”
The biggest names in the tech industry will not only be front and center during the inauguration, but they also made notable contributions to Trump’s second inauguration, with most giving bigger checks than in previous years, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Microsoft is contributing $1 million, double its contributions in 2017 and 2021, while Google is tripling its offer to $1 million after giving $285,000 to Trump’s and President Joe Biden’s inaugurations in the past. In addition, Meta, Amazon, Uber, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman each donated at least $1 million to the inaugural fund. Zuckerberg is also co-hosting a black-tie reception along with GOP donor Miriam Adelson, reported by Puck. The incoming president has raised $200 million for the inauguration, according to a source familiar, breaking previous records.
Following Trump’s election win, the tech executives each made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to sit down with Trump in an effort to protect their corporate interests and advocate for new policies in this next term.
“Everyone is trying to get in with the new administration and it’s a high-stakes game,” said a corporate lobbyist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect on the situation. “In the next four years, there will likely be major regulations coming down the pike on social media safeguard, artificial intelligence, and antitrust investigations and everyone wants to be prepared — and these CEOs are doing the early legwork.”
Many of these companies could benefit if the incoming Trump administration is lenient with regulation and antitrust enforcement. The fate of TikTok will now be in the hands of Trump, who had once called to ban the app but has since pledged to keep it available in the U.S., though it’s unclear how he will do that. Apple executives are likely eager to avoid new tariffs on their products as they did during Trump’s first term when the company won tariff carveouts on its products. The Federal Trade Commission is suing Meta over allegations that it has been anticompetitive with a trial looking imminent. Amazon and Space X are also major federal contractors.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) views the attendance of top technology CEOs at the inauguration as an opportunity to begin discussions on new legislation, pointing out that he was the author of the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996, which helped lay the groundwork for the digital revolution.
“When they’re up there on the platform, these are the companies that are the principal beneficiaries of those three bills that I’m very proud of,” Markey said, speaking to the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “As I see them up there, I know that we need an AI civil rights act in the same way I know we need a teenage privacy bill of rights.
“I’m afraid they want to walk away from their responsibilities from their job, to make sure we deal with the sinister side of cyberspace. For me, it’s almost a gift that they’re going to put themselves up there because that will allow us to talk about all the other things that we should be asking,” he said.
Biden’s farewell address warned of the danger of the influence of the nation’s tech CEOs and compared them to oligarchs. The outgoing president’s use of the word “oligarchy” is a direct reference to the situation in Russia, in which the nation’s most wealthy leaders are loyal to President Vladimir Putin.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said in a prime-time speech on Wednesday.
He also said he was concerned about the “potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also said he has “larger concerns” about the way corporate money is flowing into the inauguration committees
“This is not simply to Donald Trump. We have a real problem with the way money is raised in politics. The way money corrupts politics, and the way that we raise money for the inauguration, which is so many corporate interests are giving a lot of money, I don’t think that’s healthy and good for our democracy,” Booker said on Thursday.
Ahead of the inauguration on Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) sent a letter to the Big Tech firms asking them to explain their motives for donating to Trump’s inauguration fund on Friday.
The duo expressed concerns in the letters addressed to Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Uber, writing that they fear the contributions were made to “avoid scrutiny, limit regulation and buy favor.”
Both Warren and Bennet highlight the stakes for these big tech firms, which include “ongoing federal investigations and regulatory actions.”
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“You have a clear and direct interest in obtaining favors from the incoming administration: your company and many other Big Tech donors are already the subject of ongoing federal investigations and regulatory actions,” the lawmakers write. “These donations raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money on the Trump administration, and Congress and the public deserve answers.”
The senators asked the companies to disclose their “rationale” for their contributions along with a list of other questions to be answered no later than Jan. 30.
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