Trump's First Year in Office Saw Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk Get $250B Richer
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Numerous American billionaires saw their personal wealth increase in the first year of Donald Trump's second presidencyMany of the prominent tech CEOs and businessmen visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago club more than once last year, and contributed to his inauguration fund and ballroom projectElon Musk, who was once Trump's close adviser and who recently returned to the president's good graces, personally gained more than $200 billion in the last year
In the year since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, notable American billionaires' personal wealth increased by several billion dollars.
A new report from Financial Times determined that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — billionaire CEOs of Tesla, Amazon and Meta, respectively — all saw substantial increases to their personal wealth since attending Trump's inauguration in January 2025. The three men combined gained approximately $250 billion.
Additionally, the CEOs of Apple, Google, OpenAI and TikTok each saw notable increases in either stock price or valuation in the first year of the second Trump administration, according to the outlet.
The report, which highlights the "increasingly transactional nature of Washington" under Trump, comes after a year of his administration prioritizing billionaires, especially those associated with the growth of American tech.
Musk has, in the past year, been both a close adviser to Trump and his foe, though their rift over the summer appears to have blown over in recent months. Of the numerous billionaires and business moguls present at Trump's inauguration, the Tesla CEO — who visited Trump's Palm Beach home Mar-a-Lago more than a dozen times this year — gained the most, accumulating an estimated $234 billion under the new administration, per FT.
Bezos — who gained roughly $15 billion in personal wealth since last January — bolstered his relationship with Trump with at least two trips to the president's Florida home, plus "several phone calls" with the president over the last year.
Amazon has contributed billions to U.S. investment, FT reported, and donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund and an undisclosed amount to the president's White House ballroom construction.
Mark Zuckerberg and Lauren Sanchez, wife of Jeff Bezos.
KENNY HOLSTON/POOL/AFP via Getty
Meta CEO Zuckerberg personally gained $1.9 billion since Trump was inaugurated, and made at least two trips to Mar-a-Lago. Like Amazon, Meta pledged up to $600 billion in U.S. investment.
Bezos' Amazon and Zuckerberg's Meta each contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, as did Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The latter three executives shared at least six Mar-a-Lago visits between them.
After Apple invested $600 billion into the U.S. and contributed to Trump's ballroom, Apple shares have increased nearly 15% since January 2025. Google pledged $22 million to the ballroom production, and saw shares increase 66% in the past year. OpenAI — which is part of a consortium that pledged $500 billion to fortifying U.S. AI infrastructure — saw even greater growth in valuation, with the company's worth rising from $157 billion in late 2024 to a current estimated $500 billion.
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In contrast to the others, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew did not openly support Trump, personally or financially, though a prominent investor in TikTok's parent company ByteDance has pledged millions to Trump's Maga Inc., per FT. Still, the valuation of the social media platform, which is privately owned, grew to an estimated $500 billion.
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Many of the aforementioned CEOs were present at a White House dinner in September 2025, apparently focused on bolstering American tech. Trump was joined by Zuckerberg, Cook and Altman, plus Google founder Sergey Brin and Microsoft founder Bill Gates — a collection of individuals Trump called a "high IQ group."
