With Donald Trump’s inauguration just a few days away, details about who will be attending are quickly emerging.
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So far, one primary theme surrounding the event is it will reportedly feature a who’s who of tech sector leaders. Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk played an integral role in Trump’s campaign success but he isn’t the only prominent Silicon Valley name included on the guest list.
Indeed, Washington, D.C.’s well-known politicians and lobbyists will be sharing space with the leaders of several prominent tech fields, including artificial intelligence (AI) and social media.
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In the weeks since Trump’s election, tech CEOs have quickly moved to make sizable contributions to his inaugural fund, widely seen as a means of currying favor with the president-elect.
However, according to recent reports, one of the tech sector’s biggest names won’t attend the inauguration.
Elon Musk is along the many big tech CEOs who will be attending Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Chris Unger/Getty Images
Who will and won’t be at Trump’s inauguration?
The inaugural swearing-in ceremony is important for an incoming president, as it can set the tone for their entire term. A look at the group of big tech CEOs set to attend Trump’s event makes it clear that the sector is betting big on his policies that will benefit them.
In addition to Musk, Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon (AMZN) founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos are set to attend the inauguration.
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The list also includes Google (GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, and Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Additionally, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans on attending the inauguration, in what some see as a move to try and influence Trump to stop the app from being banned in the U.S., despite the recent Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of it.
One name that is absent from the list of tech CEOs attending the inauguration, though. Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang has expressed optimism for Trump’s presidency, stating that his company is willing to “do whatever we can to make this administration succeed.”
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However, according to reports, he is currently traveling in East Asia, which is common around the Lunar New Year holiday. He will not return to the U.S. to join many of his fellow Magnificent 7 CEOs at the inauguration.
As one of the leading companies in the AI space, Nvidia stands to be severely impacted by Trump’s plans for the technology.
Ned Finkle, the chipmaker’s vice president of government affairs, recently released a statement criticizing President Joe Biden’s AI diffusion framework, stating:
“This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition…the Biden Administration’s new rule threatens to squander America’s hard-won technological advantage.”
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It is clear that Nvidia is concerned about how the next president will address AI growth on a global scale. However, given Trump’s close proximity to Elon Musk, the CEO of an AI company, and fellow tech CEO David Sacks, it is likely that Trump’s policies will favor fast-growing technology.
Tech CEOs are betting big on Trump
The fact that so many CEOs of leading tech companies are planning on attending the inauguration shows that he is truly Silicon Valley’s president. Musk’s endorsement has ushered in a wave of fellow industry leaders lining up to back the new president in the hope that his administration favors less regulation.
It also shows that these tech leaders aren’t worried about their support for Trump costing them users.
Companies such as Apple and Meta have faced significant backlash from their customers and users after Cook and Zuckerberg made large contributions to Trump’s inauguration. However, their actions show that they would rather curry favor with their new president than their own bases.
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Trump has already changed his stance on issuing H-1B visas for international tech workers to align himself with Musk, despite an outcry from his own supporters who viewed the decision as anti-American.
Ultimately, Huang likely doesn’t need to be at the inauguration for his company to benefit from Trump’s AI policies.
Historically, Republican administrations have favored less regulation for corporations, and Trump was no different during his term. He quickly opted to roll back taxes for billionaires.
Musk and Sacks’s additions to his administration will likely prompt him to implement even more lenient policies toward the global adoption of AI, exactly the kind that Finkle outlined in his statement earlier this week as necessary for the industry to move forward.
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