Trump joined by dozens of CEOs during his Middle East trip
May 14, 2025
More than 30 business leaders representing America’s top companies joined President Donald Trump on Tuesday for a lunch in Saudi Arabia during the president’s high-stakes Middle East tour.
A list provided by the White House includes executives from big banks, AI companies, defense contractors and retail giants. It also paints a larger picture of executives and companies that have cultivated ties with the second Trump administration.
The impetus to be there is simple: Invitations to attend U.S. presidential events overseas are among the most prestigious in politics and in business. They offer executives a chance to network with Saudi investors, build relationships and show patriotic support for American industry.
In some ways, the stakes are higher this year than they might have been in the past. Many of the companies are facing challenges and uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariff and trade policies.
Many corporate leaders are taking every available chance to further joint goals and interests with famously transactional president.
The lunch was part of a packed schedule for the president, who is currently touring the Middle East. In a speech on Tuesday, Trump praised Saudi Arabia after the White House announced it had secured $600 billion in investments from the kingdom.
The lunch was hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi royal court in Riyadh. Many of the companies represented also contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund, which raised a record-breaking $239 million, much of which is expected to be spent on Trump’s presidential library project.
Some of the executives in attendance have already announced deals secured during the trip.
Here are some of the notable attendees.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX
The Teslastarted to fade. The Justice Department dropped a case against SpaceX in February, and Trump fired a Department of Agriculture inspector general in January who had launched an investigation into another Musk company, Neuralink.
During the investment forum on Tuesday, Musk announced that Saudi Arabia has approved Starlink satellites, made by SpaceX, for aviation and maritime use in the region.
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir
Shares of the defense-heavy AI company Palantirdue in part to Trump’s federal department overhauls, which have created opportunities for the company’s AI tools to fill in the gaps at agencies that now have fewer employees.
Karp also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing
Boeingannounced that the company secured its “largest-ever” aircraft deal with Qatar Airways.
Boeing is attempting to make a comeback after a rocky past year, announcing Wednesday that its deliveries nearly doubled in April.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia
NvidiaNvidia will sell more than 18,000 of its latest artificial intelligence chips to the Saudi company Humain.
“It is an incredible vision, indeed, that Saudi Arabia should build the AI infrastructure of your nation so that you could participate and help shape the future of this incredibly transformative technology,” Huang said. Like several other companies whose executives traveled to the region this week, Nvidia gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
OpenAI’s Altman donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund and in January, he posted on X, “watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him.”
Altman is now working on the Stargate Project, a collaboration with the government to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon
Amazontelling CNBC in April that the company was still digesting the impact of the tariffs and sellers may have to “pass that cost on” to consumers.
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock
BlackRockacquire ports on either end of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong-based company. That deal is currently on ice amid global trade tensions.
Ruth Porat, president and CIO of Alphabet
GoogleWhite House-Saudi deal announced Tuesday, with Google contributing to a total of $80 billion to invest in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
Like several other attendees, Google gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM
IBMannouncing two weeks ago that the company is investing $150 billion in the U.S. over the next five years. The new investment followed Trump’s massive tariff announcements last month. IBM gave $750,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.
James Quincey, CEO of Coca-Cola
Coca-Colacompany earnings call, Quincey said Coca-Cola was considering shifting more of its packaging from aluminum to plastic bottles due to Trump’s aluminum tariffs. Coca-Cola donated $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural fund, as well as donating some beverages.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
William Oplinger, CEO of Alcoa
Alcoaaluminum company is among the top hardest hit by Trump’s aluminum tariffs, projecting a $90 million tariff hit in the second quarter.
Search
RECENT PRESS RELEASES
Related Post
