(Photo: Associated Press)
High-profile guests at President Donald Trump’s black-tie dinner honoring Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on Tuesday night included the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and other business executives and billionaires whose combined net worth totals $719 billion.
Siladitya Ray and Mary Whitfill Roeloffs for Forbes:
Billionaire Jensen Huang and Lisa Su, the CEOs of chip giants Nvidia and AMD, attended months after both companies signed deals to supply their advanced semiconductors to AI company Humain—which the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF owns.
Tech and finance billionaires Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, Tim Cook of Apple and Vlad Tenev of Robinhood also attended.
David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation and son of mega billionaire Larry Ellison, was there amid reports the Saudi sovereign fund could partly fund his company’s bid to acquire rival Warner Bros. Discovery (the company has since denied the claim).
Also among the invitees were General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Chevron CEO Mike Wirth.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who signed the world’s most expensive soccer contract with Saudi soccer club Al-Nassr two years ago and has surpassed $1 billion in career earnings, lended his star power to the dinner.
The dinner was the first time Musk has been at the White House since he left his role as a special government employee heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in May.
Musk is the richest person in the world with an almost $468 billion net worth as of Wednesday, according to Forbes estimates. Two of the other attendees are also among the world’s 100 richest people: No. 8 Huang ($161.6 billion) and No. 36 Steve Schwarzman ($43.9 billion). Karp is worth $15.2 billion, Armstrong is worth $11.2 billion, Benioff is worth $8.6 billion, Tenev is worth $6.5 billion and Tim cook has a $2.6 billion valuation. Su, the only female executive in attendance, is worth $1.5 billion.
MacDailyNews Take: A very high net worth room. More info and photos in the full article here.
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Tim and Elon clearly want those tax breaks for Billionaires that Trump was talking about. Why else would they be attending a dinner with a Saudi whose country has an ABYSMAL human rights record.
🤮
Khashoggi soufflé for desert?
That’s in the worst taste. Note the number of positive votes you received.
You know I’ve been contributing to this site for over twenty years and I have to say that you have outdone all others, left, centre or right wing in bad taste. Shame on you, you grub.
I wonder if he is forced to join? Does Tim know what they do to Gay people in Saudi?
I never expected this from Apple.
Tim knows.
I seem to recall that Tim went to one of those middle eastern countries (SA, or UAE,etc.) for an Apple Store opening.
It amazing how their self-righteous, progressive posture on human rights, free speech, women’s rights and LGBTQ rights just fades away when given the opportunity to hobnob with an über-wealthy autocratic king who violently opposes every single one of those issues. And who also didn’t think twice about bone-sawing a political critic in his embassy and disposing of the body in barrels of acid, Breaking Bad style. But as Trump said, “Things happen.” And the Crown Prince admitted that bone-sawing someone in his country’s embassy was a “huge mistake,” so all good.
Hell, I never ever thought of “bone-sawing” a person into small pieces. If I had to defend myself against such activities then I’d take all the necessary steps to in those defensive actions. In law that is the act of self defence.
If, however you set out to “bone-saw” a political opponent or otherwise then that is murder. And in Kashoggi’s case it was willful premeditated murder. That’s murder one. End of story.
That doesn’t make me self-righteous, it means that I try to obey the law and not harm others. And yes you’re right about Tim Cook and others insofar as they are hypocritical in their respective stances. My point is just don’t try to justify what the Crown Prince did (and this was investigated by the FBI) as a justification for his actions.
Whatever about Ellison, Musk and the rest – they have all proven they can be bought. I’m fiercely disappointed in Cook and Apple. Not a spine in sight. MBS is a murderer, and to be feted this way shows such a lack of morality from all. America should be ashamed…
Spot on mate, I totally agree. Look, the president is a a admitted sex offender I wouldn’t expect any morality from an dishonourable president.