Snoop Dogg performance to events at exclusive hotels, yachts: Tech industry readies to celebrate Trump inauguration

Washington: A party at the beaux arts mansion of venture capitalist Peter Thiel. A blowout organized by hosts of the popular tech podcast All-In at a brand-new members-only club. A viewing ceremony hosted by an ascendant, Silicon Valley-inflected network of wealthy donors.

Some of the most coveted parties during President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural weekend will be hosted by the Silicon Valley donors who are flush with power at the dawn of his second administration. The tech industry that has embraced Trump over the last year or so is set to revel in its clout over days of festivities that will make the tech donors the stars of the show.

Inaugurations attract deep-pocketed corporations and donors seeking access to an incoming administration that will oversee their industries and interests. Trump’s official inaugural committee has shattered fundraising records.

Companies have poured in $1 million or more, including Fortune 500 stalwarts like Ford and General Motors; tech giants like Amazon and Google; cryptocurrency upstarts like Ripple and Robinhood; and traditional GOP megadonors, including the coal billionaires Joseph W. Craft III and Kelly Knight Craft, who gave $1 million, according to a person with knowledge of their donation. In exchange, donors have been given tickets to exclusive official events, including intimate dinners with Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, and VIP access to the swearing-in ceremony on Monday.

But much of the action happens on the sidelines of the official program. Across Washington, dozens of big-money events are planned at the city’s most exclusive hotels and restaurants, rooftops and ballrooms, on land and aboard yachts, mostly catering to the corporations and wealthy executives who will be in the capital to usher in a new term that they hope will unshackle American business.

Parties are planned at downtown steakhouses and Georgetown sushi spots for clients and associates of lobbying firms with ties to the incoming Trump administration. Among them are the Chartwell Strategy Group, whose partners raised $3 million for the inauguration and represent clients including Hyundai, which donated $1 million through its U.S. subsidiary; and Ballard Partners, the firm of the top Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard, who represents corporations that have collectively given millions to the inaugural committee, including Amazon and Ripple.

Some long-standing Republican establishment donor networks are set for revelry as usual: The American Action Network, one of the main outside groups behind House Republicans, is hosting a big Sunday event for members of Congress and its donors at the Library of Congress. The American Opportunity Alliance, a collection of Republican billionaires including Paul Singer and Warren Stephens, is set to host about a half-dozen events for its members, including at a hospitality suite at the Capitol Hill Club, a private club for Republicans. Some American Opportunity Alliance members will also attend a separate Friday reception thrown by lobbyist Jeff Miller that will feature Donald Trump Jr.

But some of the president-elect’s newest supporters — those from Silicon Valley — are holding this year’s most novel inaugural events.

Few events have attracted more interest from politically ambitious executives than the Crypto Ball, a sold-out affair on Friday night being put on by the cryptocurrency industry to celebrate what the invitation calls “the first crypto president.” Snoop Dogg is set to perform at the party, which will also celebrate David Sacks, a venture capitalist and podcaster whom Trump named as his czar for artificial intelligence and crypto issues.

MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super political action committee, is hosting a “VIP reception” at the Crypto Ball, with a $100,000-per-person entry fee. MAGA Inc. is raising significant money from these tech and crypto executives: On Wednesday evening, Vance was at Le Bilboquet, a French restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida, to headline a $250,000-a-head dinner for the group, according to a person with knowledge of the event. The 20 or so attendees included Sacks, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the crypto billionaires made famous in “The Social Network,” and Omeed Malik, an investor at 1789 Capital.

Other new tech backers include Thiel. The billionaire did not support Trump in the 2024 election beyond a donation he made to a pro-Trump legal group, but he is set to host a black-tie party Saturday evening at his Washington home alongside Sacks, his close friend, and their spouses.

On Sunday afternoon, Sacks will hold a private party with the co-hosts of his “All-In” show, which has gained a cultlike following in Silicon Valley and among the industry’s right wing, with Trump appearing on the show last summer. The hosts — Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg and Jason Calacanis, all investors — have an event planned that afternoon at Ned’s Club, a social club in Washington modeled after New York’s Soho House that opens this month.

During Trump’s second Inaugural Address, which is scheduled to be held on a freezing Monday afternoon, and the ensuing parade, Ned’s Club will be the site of an intentionally indoor viewing party with donors affiliated with the Rockbridge Network, a recent competitor of sorts to the American Opportunity Alliance as a nexus of major donors that has fostered close ties with the incoming administration.

Other tech companies hosting events include Spotify, which is holding a brunch featuring Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro, and Uber and the social platform X, which is led by Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most vocal boosters and his No. 1 donor. People expected to be on the social scene from Silicon Valley include the Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, who is hosting a post-ceremony event alongside the likes of the megadonor Miriam Adelson, and of course, Musk and several of his friends from California, Texas and Florida.

Some events have already begun. A Tuesday night party at the Morton’s steakhouse near the White House was hosted by conservative radio juggernaut Salem Media and Stryk Global Diplomacy, a lobbying firm that has represented foreign clients, including the governments of El Salvador, Somalia and Congo.

Billed as honoring the staff who worked for Trump, the party, which offered an open bar and free cigars, did not charge admission. It attracted a mix of Trump world figures like military contractor Erik D. Prince and Chad Wolf, an acting secretary of homeland security during the first Trump administration, as well as dozens of younger Trump aides. Such aides can be useful contacts for lobbyists and others seeking access in a new administration.

By the time Robert Stryk, the leader of the lobbying firm, took the microphone to welcome guests, a line of mostly younger people was waiting in the lobby to check in.

“We did this party,” Stryk told the crowd, “because the staff never gets anything.” He added, “All these rich guys get everything, so it’s nice that you guys get something.”