ceo Archives - Page 4 of 4

The best paid CEO in the US is not in Apple or Tesla. It is a complete stranger of a company that you had not heard

May 8, 2025 by usatoday24

When we think of the CEOs Better paid on the planet Surely we repeat a small group of people at the controls of some of the great technological corporations that dominate the present. We would not be unchanged in figures such as Tim Cook, Satya Nadella or Mark Zuckerberg, but none of them approaches the emoluments received by the Jafazo best paid in the United States. The curious thing about this story is that you have not heard in your life or the CEO, nor the company it directs. A complete stranger at the top. In an environment, that of the great corporations, dominated by omnipresent names such as Tim Cook, Elon Musk or Jensen Huang, the title of the best paid CEO of 2024 did not fell in any of them, but in an executive practically unknown to the general public: James Anderson. As? Yes, the man is in charge of COHERENTa technological company based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the manufacture of network and laser systems. Anderson received a total remuneration of 101.5 million dollarssurpassing by a wide margin to figures such as Brian Niccol de Starbucks or Satya Nadella de Microsoft. Its impressive salary package positions it as the only CEO of the Ranking of Equila (which analyzed the 100 companies with income greater than one billion dollars) to exceed the barrier of the nine digits in compensation, in a year in which the average salary of an CEO reached a record of 25.6 million dollars. The stock market effect and a distortion. Although Anderson has a base salary of little more than one millionits incorporation to Coherent in June 2024 made its remuneration in cash be limited to only $ 81,538, along with a signature bonus of half a million. The rest, 99.4% of its emoluments, came from a Actions package whose value was shot unexpectedly. The reason: the enthusiasm of the market after the announcement of its appointment catapulted the price of coherent shares, thus generating an inflationary effect on the value of its shareholding concessions. The company, in Your proxy reporteven recognized this paradox: the actions were valued using a 30 -day mobile average that did not reflect the posterior stock market explosion, which artificially amplified the amount of the package. In addition, the payment included compensation for the loss of deferred actions accumulated during its previous stage in Semiconductor Laticewhere it was considered key in the exponential growth of the stock market value. The Top 10 of 2024 Domino effect. The impact of his Latetice departure and his arrival in Coherent was immediate. On the same day of the ad, the market value of Latice fell 15.5%which represented a loss of 1.6 billion dollars, while Coherent shares rose 22.9%, adding about 2,000 million in stock market capitalization. Since then, Coherent has maintained sustained growth, while Latice has retreated 34%. To all this, we must add that Anderson, Electrical Engineer With titles of MIT, Purdue and the University of Minnesota, it has a proven history: During their management in Lattice, the actions rose more than 875%, exceeding by broad margin to the S&P 500. In other words: its reputation as a silent transformer seems to have become an asset as valuable as any product line. The era of actions as salary. In the background, Anderson’s case illustrates a Dominant trend In contemporary executive compensation: retribution in shares represents near the 73% of the average total salary of the ceos, According to equilationwith a 41% increase compared to the previous year. This form of remuneration, linked to stock market performance rather than immediate results, has allowed to justify very high compensations, even in companies where the benefits do not always accompany. For example, Summit Singh, Chewy CEO, He received 35.1 million in 2024 Although the actions of the company 60% fellthe worst performance of the entire list. In contrast, Jensen Huang, from Nvidia (the firm with Best stock yield of the year, with an increase of 215%) received 34.1 million, although Your personal fortune It is estimated at 92,000 million thanks to its shareholding of 3.5%. Map of “tech” salaries a year earlier Benefits, security and inequality. There is much more, of course. In fact, in addition to wages and actions, many CEOs enjoy luxurious additional benefits. They counted in Barrons That Tim Cook, for example, received more than $ 780,000 in personal security services and another 655,000 on private flights. Starbucks, meanwhile, provides its CEO flights exclusively in private jets. Plus: This type of expenses has become more common due to growing concerns for security, especially after UNITEDHEALTH GROUP CEO Murder in a street in New York. In fact, a parallel study of equilation shows that almost a third of the S&P 500 companies already offer some type of executive protection, in this case a 28% increase Regarding 2023. The enigma Elon Musk. Yes, you may have realized that The richest man The planet has not appeared much until now. Elon Musk, although absent from the ranking because Tesla He has not presented Even your proxy report is still a key figure. Its previous ten -year compensation plan, approved in 2018 and currently valued in about 70,000 millionwas canceled twice By a delaware judge and now awaits a resolution in the state Supreme Court. This episode, together with the growing disconnection between real performance and executive remuneration, has fed criticism about the lack of effective controls in corporate wages. As Dean Baker summed upco -founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “there is no real control over what is paid to the CEOS”, adding that many are not extraordinary, although they are paid as if they were. Citing these days, Warren Buffett, I remembered: “I try to invest in companies so good that even an idiot can direct them, because sooner or later, someone will do it.” Reflection of an era. In summary, at a time where salary inequality and wealth concentration generate increasingly intense debates, Anderson’s story It represents both … Read more

We do not know if the AI is going to eat your work, but the CEO of some startups are determined to convince you of it

May 7, 2025 by usatoday24

AI comes for your work. It is the message that does not stop arriving since Chatgpt reached the market. And even before. The impact of artificial intelligence on the world of employment It can be hugebut for the moment They have not been noticed Its effects too much. That, they say more and more frequently the CEOs of technological companies, it will change. First, Shopify. Less than a month ago the CEO of Shopify, Tobi Lütke, He sent a memorandum To its employees with a clear directive: “Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation for everyone in Shopify.” In fact, he indicated that before expanding a workforce or investing in other tools, project managers should have exhausted all the ways to do that task with AI already available tools. Then Fiverr. The last to adopt a decision and speech of this type is Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, who in a memo to his employees emphasized the importance of protecting their careers in the face of the growing influence of AI. His message was overwhelming: “This is the unpleasant truth: AI comes for your work. Demons, it also comes for mine. This is a call of attention. It does not matter if you are a programmer, designer, product manager, data scientist, lawyer, customer service representative, seller or financial: the AI comes for you. You must understand that what were previously considered” easy tasks “will no longer exist; what were considered” difficult tasks “will be” difficult tasks ” Easy, and what was considered “impossible tasks” will be the difficult thing. Finally (for the moment), Duolingo. Luis von Ahn, CEO of Duolingo, announced its template A few days ago his intention to be “an Ai-first. Among the measures that the company will take is to “gradually stop hiring freelancers to do the work of which AI can be commissioned.” Of course, Von Ahn apostilled, “Duolingo will continue to be a company that deeply cares about its employees. This does not replace the DUOS (company employees) with AI. It is about eliminating bottlenecks so we can do more with the spectacular duos we have now.” Many said it before, many will say it later. The message is explicit, but of course it is not new. The appearance of Chatgpt caused this type of predictions to become increasingly frequent, and little by little we have seen how the CEOs of large companies have talked about the impact that AI will cause on work. Above all, in the world of programming: Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, was clear a year ago than No one should learn to programand they have also said Mark Garman (CEO of AWS) or Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Mark Zuckerberg joined that prediction a few days ago and assured that in 12-18 months the majority of the code would be written by an AI. And I didn’t talk about the machines autocomplete code, but that they would write it completely. First it will help us, then (perhaps) it will replace us. Many experts believe that AI It will enhance our productivity And it will help us do more And better work than ever. It is what happened with the computer or internet, but with AI there is a clear fear that I end up going beyond and completely doing our work. The possibility is there, although with other technological revolutions, there will be more threatened jobs and others that will be less. Bill Gates, for example, believes that Doctors and human teachers do not have much future And Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, states that the impact of AI on employment “It is a huge, huge problem“. Perhaps 140 years of history point to a surprising future profession. Hairdressers. Between 1871 and 2011 Technology created more jobs than destroyed. The 2015 study published In The Guardian It focused specifically on data from the Census of England and Wales, and that allowed to assess the impact of technology on the world of employment. The most physical works clearly fell into a fee, but while or other professions were created, or professionals were added to which there were already. For example, surprise: the number of hairdressers grew prodigiously throughout those 140 years: just 0.1% of the workforce in 1871, this group went on to represent 0.6% in 2011. But the impact is inevitable. There are more studies and forecasts that occurred before the current “revolution” of AI. In 2018 the World Economic Forum (WEF) He published his report ‘Future of Jobs 2018’. In their conclusions they pointed out that automation would eliminate 75 million jobs by 2025, but would create 133 million new functions. The balance has changed five years later. In your 2023 reportthis agency pointed out that in the next five years it is estimated that 83 million works will be lost and 69 million will be created. The funny thing is that lately workers They seem to be somewhat more optimistic With his future. Image | Fiat Chrysler Automobiles In Xataka | Thousands of employees use AI in their work. More and more do not want their bosses to discover it

Wayne Griffiths, CEO of Seat and leader of his historical repositioning leaves

March 31, 2025 by usatoday24

The CEO of Seat and Cupra leaves the leadership of the company since March 31, 2025. With this notic we have surprised the email entrance tray at 16:16 of, indeed, today March 31, 2025, announcing the departure of Wayne Griffiths, CEO until today of the company and one of the voices that have generated the most noise in the Spanish car in recent years. “At your own request”. Wayne Griffiths’s departure is voluntary, leaving Seat SA a few days after the company presented its results. “At your own request with immediate effect to undertake new challenges”, Read in the statement that the company has published. Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand and president of the board of directors of SEAT SA highlights of Griffiths that has done a great job in the development of the Cupra brand and in the restructuring of the company. “The company has lived a deep change under its leadership. The profile. Until now, Griffiths’s career He had always been linked to the march of the Volkswagen Group. His admission occurred in 1989 aboard Audi, where he grew up during the 90s after a brief step by Seat. As of 1998 he assumed positions of responsibility in the Audi sales area which catapulted him to the position of Audi sales director in Germany during the 2000s. Already in 2016 he was appointed Commercial Vice President of Seat SA S has since been the visible head of the transformation of Seat, first as president of Cupra since December 2018 and, subsequently, as president of Seat since October 2020. A transformation. During the four and a half years that Griffiths has been the president of the company has worked to finish tracking the train to which Luca de Meo had already put the tracks. The Italian arrived in 2015 to the SEAT address with the task of refloating the company. Seat had been losing money since 2008. That same 2015 Seat has already entered positive numbers and began a restructuring that has completely changed the company’s identity. Because on the way to sell greater volume but, above all, more expensive cars, Cupra was taken from under the sleeve. Now the company is the one that pulls the car inside Seat Sa From the departure in 2020 of the ItalianGriffiths has led a conversion that has left us the company’s first electric cars (CUPRA BORN and Tavascan) But, above all, the idea that Seat SA is now a very different thing than a decade ago. “The future is Cupra”. In March 2022, Griffiths surprised with a phrase in the presentation of the company’s results: “Cupra is not the end of Seat. Cupra gives Seat a future and the future is electric. The future is Cupra.” Seat’s position began to stagger and the lace seemed to put Thomas Schäfer, one of the strongest men in the Volkswagen group, who said that “We will find a new role for Seat”. Little by little, Cupra has devoured Seat. As you can see in the superior image, when Griffiths took command of Seat SA, Martorell produced just over 350,000 cars. Last year He moved above 480,000 cars. Despite the substantial increase in Cupra (from 23,460 units in 2020 to 173,384 units last year), the brand has managed to re -manufacture almost 240,000 Seat cars. And the cupra figures, as little, should be maintained over time. The company has found a success in the Formentor. The car is little more than a “lifted” Seat León but they have managed to give them their own identity and, above all, sell it much more expensive. The Seat León today starts about 23,000 euros while The Formentor Cupra exceeds 35,000 euros starting. A rocker. In recent years, Seat SA has clearly bet on Cupra. Cupra has been receiving New models ads. He went from Seat sports branch to a brand with its own identity. A movement that has the firm of De Meowho did the same with Abarth and Fiat and has repeated play with Alpine and Renault. Thus, the same car can be sold slightly retouched with a small cost for the company but at a much higher price, shooting the profit margin. The complicated thing is to provide the new signature of its own identity. Cupra has found it with a new logo, sharp and more daring shapes than any other Volkswagen group company. Also, in addition, it is receiving new electrical models and plug -in hybrids, options in danger of extinction within SEAT. At the same time, Seat has finished positioning itself as the Volkswagen input range. Your cars They lack any type of electrification while they have contained their prices a bit. In return, they take a juicy part of sales, open the door to position themselves as a brand interested in micromobility services And who knowsin the future of affordable electric cars to return as the most economical option. A critic. Griffiths has ended up framing the project that was already guessed with Luca de Meo’s command but, in addition, with his departure one of the most critical voices is also leaving and that he has left in the automobile sector in Spain. The CEO of Seat has always been contrary to Chinese electric car tariffsEuropean car policies to foster the electric car and complicate the future to combustion and Critic with the Government From his position as President of ANFAC, to which he resigned in June 2024. I said a few days ago that SEAT will have to fire workers If manufacturers are forced to comply with emission regulations designed by 2027. With them, Seat will not be able to survive if they do not change radically in the next two years. Photo | SEAT In Xataka | They bet on making Seat the cheapest brand of the Volkswagen group. Now Martorell’s production is at risk

Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, is probably the new richest person in China. He doesn’t want to know anything about that

February 27, 2025 by usatoday24

Xiaomi has been chaining Good financial results quarter after quarter, marking a milestone in the Hong Kong bag. That good behavior of their actions has made the Fortuna de Lei Junco -founder and CEO of the brand, has grown like foam in recent months until it becomes the richest man in China. The most curious thing is that he doesn’t want to know anything about all that. Xiaomi triggered. Xiaomi’s shares have registered a 286% growth since the presentation of the first brand electric car. With the presentation of Su7 Ultra, the most sporty and luxurious versionthat upward trend is maintained. According to published The Chinese media specialized in Finance Cailianshe, the good results of Xiaomi have promoted the fortune of Lei Jun until they convert it, even for a few moments, in the richest person in China. The Xiaomi CEO has first surpassed the tycoon of bottled waterZhong Shanshan, and Pony Ma, CEO of Tencent. The richest … for a while. We say that Lei Jun has been for a moment the richest man in China because, As they point out From Coilianshe, short operations have stopped the escalation of the price of Xiaomi shares that began the day with 4%profits, to close the session falling 5.68%. That fluctuation has made Jun occupy the first position until the actions have fallen again throughout the day. It is estimated that Lei Jun has a heritage close to 44,000 million dollars. However, Jun himself He denied the rumor who had become the richest man in China in an internal alumni chat at the University of Wuhan he attended. It is not humility, it is taboo. In the West, it would be a source of joy and joy for any millionaire to reach, even if only for a moment, the highest fortune position in his country. However, Lei Jun hastened to deny the news. It is not humility. Being ultrarrico in China is not well seen. As they pointed out in The worldthis taboo seems to be a cultural vestige of the anti -capitalist doctrine that Mao Zedong promoted in the late 70s of the last century with the “Cultural Revolution“ Such and as they tell in theBBCpublic opinion in China does not see with good eyes that the millionaires show their fortunes, they often reproach their behavior to whom it shows an opulent life through Xiaohongshu, known as “Chinese Instagram”. Young and rich. In fact, since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, the authorities have been applying the doctrine of “common prosperity“, which considers the millionaires in bad taste make ostentation of your wealth not to exalt social inequalities. The ads of luxury products on radio and television were also restricted. In 2023, a “austerity campaign” began in which the big companies and financial entities asked their employees not to travel in the first class or not wear clothes or ostentatious jewels. Jack Ma’s toll to highlight. Most likely, Lei Jun’s rush for denying his alleged fortune comes from Lessons left Jack Ma In the past. The founding millionaire of Alibaba paid a high personal cost for wanting to create one of the largest companies in China. Government pressure reduced his empire to ashesalthough has resurfaced again. Chinese hermeticism. This cultural and political secrecy makes it extremely complicated Forbes either Bloomberg The studies that Hurun publishes annually With the estimated fortune of each of the millionaires, but this leaves a distorted image of these assets, which are subject to constant market fluctuations. For example, the 2024 Hurun list assigns the first three positions to Zhang Yiming (49.3 billion dollars), CEO of Bytedance; Zhong Shanshan (47.9 billion dollars), CEO of Nongfu Spring and Pony Ma (44.4 billion dollars) of Tencent. Lei Jun is in the 19th place of that list with an estimated fortune of 18.3 billion. The Forbes list assign you 42.5 billion dollars and Bloomberg 46.9 billion dollars. In Xataka | China has been cutting its technology for years. Xi Jiping has just opened the door for that to change Image | Wikimedia Commons (Wipo)

Jay Graber’s story, the CEO that is breaking the silicon valley mold

February 19, 2025 by usatoday24

When Jay Graber went up to the stage of Techcrunch In December 2024his message was overwhelming: Bluesky It is built “billionaire proof”. “The armor is in the design,” he said. “If someone bought Bluesky or broke, everything is open source. What happened to Twitter could not happen to us.” With more than 24 million users after the US elections of 2024, Bluesky has become a serious alternative to X. It is not necessary to exaggerate and say that it is already at its height because it is not even much less, but at least there is one Alternative where there was practically only empty. The story of how to get led this little revolution is singular and contextualize your vision of social networks. The origins Born in 1991 in Tulsa, according to Forbeshis mother – a acupunturist who fled from the Chinese cultural revolution – gave him the second name “Lantian” (蓝天), “blue sky” in Mandarin. As he revealed Vanity Fairthis name represented a desire for “freedom without limits” for his daughter, born of his own experiences under an oppressive regime. His father, a professor of mathematics of Swiss origin, completed this multicultural environment that would mark his vision of the world. The coincidence with the name of the company that now directs is casual, Jack Dorsy had already baptized the project as “Bluesky” before. However, it seems a something prophetic, especially considering the vision of freedom and openness that Graber would bring to the project. After graduating in science, technology and society from the University of Pennsylvania, where I monde He reports that he co -founded a student time bank, Graber worked as a engineer in Skuchain and in a factory welding Bitcoins mining equipment, before joining ZCASH in 2016. As revealed in Decode, This early experience with decentralized technologies was fundamental: “I have worked a lot of time in decentralized technologies and I have seen its limitations, but I also believe that there are many limitations in centralized systems.” Bluesky’s birth In 2019, while running Happening Inc., she was invited to a group of experts convened by Twitter. “He was one of the experts in a small chat room,” he recalled during An interview in Decode, the podcast of The Verge “I was very excited. At that time I worked in my own social app, and had been building decentralized social protocols, playing with them, doing a lot of research.” In 2021 It was named CEO of Blueskyalready as an independent company. This independence was a key decision that she promoted. As she revealed, “I insisted that we separate as an independent company. If the captain changed or if that support disappeared, it would lose institutional support for Bluesky, and I really wanted this project to exist.” “Jack had a vision of something better for social networks,” he explained to CNBC. “We are building an open source social network that anyone can take and build on it. No one has been so open or put so much control in the hands of users.” In your conversation with DecodeGraber deepened this vision: “We want this to be the last social identity that you will have to createbecause you can move it between applications and services. You can carry your identity, your relationships and your data with you. “ According to data provided by Emily Liu, spokesman for Bluesky, to Newsweekthe platform added five million new users after the 2024 elections, mainly from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. This explosive growth, as reveals The country“after the escaped flight of many users of X was intensified, once the news was made public that Elon Musk had been appointed co -director of the Donald Trump government efficiency department. “It is not entirely clear if there was a stampery as such and what magnitude, but that The dates of the rebound of users of Bluesky coincide with the post -electional. Monetization and leadership The challenge is now monetization. In “The Big Interview” of Wired, Graber announced premium subscriptions For high quality and customization videos. The company has raised 36 million dollarsincluding 15 million capital blockchain. And sooner or later he will have to return that money. “We are not going to build an advertisement algorithm that encloses users,” he told CNBC. With Twenty employees and one hundred moderatorsBluesky bets on an alternative model. As explained in depth to Decode, The platform is developing a “componable moderation” system which will allow users and communities to create their own rules and filters. “We think about the ‘bus problem’,” he explained to Forbes. “We have blocked everything so open that we cannot degrade the experience because we have opened the market to entrepreneurs.” This approach reflects The unconventional leadership style of Graber that, according to The country“He communicates directly with users, he is close and accessible. From his personal account, he writes threads explaining tricks to use better bluesky and usually reveals curious data with a sense of humor.” Rose Wang, Bluesky Operations Director, who met Graber in 2018 during a car trip to Lake Tahoe, describes her way of leading: “What does Jay so special is that in addition to being collaborative is a visionary, capable of anticipating ten steps to what is to come. “ The future Investor Mark Cuban told Forbes That Bluesky sees as a “really social” experience, although he made a nuance: his account in X has ten times more followers, a way of throwing a darting to the low penetration of the first against the second. This disparity does not seem to worry about Graber, who in Decode emphasized that the objective It is not to replicate the model of traditional social networks, but to create something radically different. Well. The future is about to be written. As Graber he told Wired: “We are focused on offering a good experience while we climb.” In Decodeexpanded this idea: “We have to show the first people that this vision can work, which is fun, useful, better than the … Read more

“They are brilliant researchers under the control of an authoritarian government.” Anthropic’s CEO has spoken about Depseek

January 29, 2025 by usatoday24

In the midst of the stir caused by the latest models of the Deepseek, the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, has published An analysis on its personal website in which it questions the narrative of the “Chinese miracle” in artificial intelligence. Why is it important. The debate on Chinese capacity to develop advanced AI has monopolized the agenda in recent days after Deepseek’s releaseswhich have come to provoke A 17% drop in Nvidia shares. The facts. Deepseek claims to have developed its model V3 for just under 6 million dollarswhile Amodei explained that Claude 3.5 Sonnetthe last and most advanced Anthropic model, required “some tens of millions” in training. Far from the “thousands of millions” that were speculated. “Deepseek has produced a model close to the performance of US models 7-10 months ago, for a rather lower cost, but not in the proportions that have been suggested,” said the CEO. Deepseek operates with about 50,000 generation chips Hoppera capacity that Amodei considers similar to that of the main American technological ones. According to his analysis, Deepseek’s advances reflect the natural reduction of costs in the sector, estimated at annual 75%. The context. Deepseek has presented two models: V3, which uses traditional training. And R1, which incorporates reinforcement learning. For Amodei, real innovation is in V3, not in R1, which according to him, follows roads already explored by other technological ones. Turning point. The development of an AI superior to human intelligence will require millions of chips and tens of billions of dollars in the coming years. “Between 2026 and 2027 we will see which will be smarter than almost all humans in almost all tasks,” he said. In this scenario, he has defended Export controls as a strategic tool. Amodei has also recognized the talent of Deepseek engineers … although he has warned about the implications that a company operates under the control of the Chinese government. For him, The growing efficiency In the development of AI justifies reinforce, and not relax, commercial restrictions. In fact, he has had some words of praise for Depseek’s team, but not for his nation: “They are brilliant and curious researchers who only want to create useful technology, but are subject to an authoritarian government that has committed human rights violations and He has behaved aggressively on the world scene. “ In Xataka | “Google gives you links, perplexity gives you answers”: we talk to the CEO of the startup that wants to kill the father Outstanding image | Techcrunch

Millionaires, tycoons and presidents: Guide to who was and where at Trump’s inauguration

January 23, 2025 by usatoday24

The packed dais in the Capitol Rotunda on Inauguration Day featured four of the five richest men in the world, five U.S. presidents, technology and business magnates, and two foreign leaders in prime locations. Donald Trump’s inauguration was attended by traditional, unprecedented and unorthodox guests, from Supreme Court judges to the vice president of China and the director of TikTok, an application that the United States authorities have identified as a risk to national security, along with the person Trump has chosen to lead the intelligence community. There were also members of the president’s family and other familiar faces in Trump’s circle. Lawmakers mostly sat across from Trump, watching the new president take the oath of office. Here are who was on the stand and who they sat next to. 1. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, was sitting next to Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump has nominated to be director of national intelligence. Trump intervened this weekend in an attempt to stop a ban on TikTok, which is seen as a potential national security threat. The president has credited the social network with helping him win last year’s election, but the platform faces a ban if the China-based parent company does not find a buyer approved by Washington. 2. Joe Rogan, one of the world’s most popular podcasters, sat down for a three-hour interview with Trump in the final stretch of the campaign and ultimately endorsed him a day before the election. Trump has expressed his gratitude to him. 3. A group of billionaires and tech tycoons sat in the same row. They included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos; to the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai and the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. They were seated behind Trump’s wife, Melania, and their children, but in front of several of his Cabinet nominees. Musk, who has grown closer to Trump since the election, sat closest to Trump. Bernard Arnault, CEO of French magnate LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods seller whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, was on the opposite side of the stand. 4. Barron Trump is Trump’s youngest son. The president has acknowledged his contribution to the online campaign, saying it introduced him to internet personalities he had never met before. Barron Trump is now 18 and a freshman business student at New York University, but he will have a room in the White House. 5. Kai Trump, one of Trump’s granddaughters, is a social media influencer and avid golfer. Kai Trump is only 17 years old but has grown in popularity over the past year, taking the stage at the Republican National Convention and speaking briefly at a rally over the weekend. She is the daughter of Donald Trump Jr., who has helped her father with some of his elections and is seen as an enforcer of loyalty in his circle. 6. Miriam Adelson and John Paulson were among the Trump campaign’s biggest donors and got prime seats at the ceremony alongside the next White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Paulson, a billionaire investor, hosted a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, that set a record for a single event, adding $50.5 million to the campaign last April. Adelson is co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. She is a major Trump supporter and, along with Zuckerberg, hosted another inaugural event on Monday. 7. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and outgoing President Joe Biden also received prime seats. All of his wives, except former first lady Michelle Obama, were also sitting there. Michelle Obama had previously announced that she would skip the swearing-in ceremony. He didn’t give a reason. 8. In an unprecedented move, Trump invited foreign leaders to the inauguration, and they, too, got coveted seats at the ceremony. The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, was sitting next to the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. There was also China’s vice president, Han Zheng, whom President Xi Jinping sent to represent him. China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, was also nearby.

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