‘Making Money’ host Charles Payne discusses President Donald Trump’s penchant for brokering peace deals.
A lunch at the Saudi royal court in Riyadh gave President Donald Trump, Saudi leaders and numerous business executives an opportunity to rub shoulders Tuesday.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted the lunch.
The lunch was part of Trump’s high-stakes tour of the Persian Gulf region, targeting business deals and strategic partnerships with three oil-rich nations — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
AMERICAN CEOS ELON MUSK, SAM ALTMAN, LARRY FINK JOIN TRUMP AT SAUDI ROYAL COURT
A list obtained by FOX Business and media reports Tuesday indicated the lunch in Riyadh had quite a few business executives present, including the following people, some of whom have been critical of Trump in the past.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, center, and ImmunityBio Executive Chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong, right, wait to meet the Saudi Crown Prince at the Royal Court in Riyadh May 13, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Altman, once a critic of Trump and a contributor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, was photographed at the Saudi royal court. In January, the OpenAI CEO wrote on X that “watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him,” adding Trump “will be incredible for the country in many ways,” though Altman’s “not going to agree with him on everything.”
Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang
“Good discussion on AI leadership with President Trump and my colleagues from across the AI industry. Thanks for our Saudi hosts as well,” Wang wrote Tuesday in an X post, sharing a screenshot of a news broadcast showing him shaking hands with the president.
Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang testifies during a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies and Innovation hearing about artificial intelligence on Capitol Hill July 18, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Elon Musk, a senior advisor to the president, left, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, center, are directed to greet the Saudi Crown Prince at the Royal Court in Riyadh May 13, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Musk was a major supporter of Trump during the 2024 campaign cycle. When the president took office in January, Musk became the head of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Google CIO Ruth Porat
Ruth Porat participates in the session, “Curiosity, Wonder, and Awe,” onstage during the Clinton Global Initiative Meeting at New York Hilton Midtown Sept. 19, 2023, in New York City. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Jassy, an attendee at the lunch, was also a speaker at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in the capital of Saudi Arabia Tuesday.
Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, during the GeekWire Summit in Seattle Oct. 5, 2021. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Palantir CEO Alex Karp
Karp’s Palantir is a major software company. He co-founded it in the early 2000s.
Alex Karp and Andrew Ross Sorkin speak during the AI Expo For National Competitiveness at Walter E. Washington Convention Center May 7, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Palantir / Getty Images)
Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Kalanick previously led ride-share company Uber from 2010 to 2017. He was also one of its cofounders.
Travis Kalanick attends the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art May 6, 2019, in New York City. (Theo Wargo/WireImage)
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney arrives at United States District Court May 20, 2021m in Oakland, Calif. (Philip Pacheco/Getty Images / Getty Images)
In January, Sweeney lambasted some “Big Tech leaders” as “now pretending to be Republicans, in hopes of currying favor with the new administration.” He said to “beware of the scummy monopoly campaign to vilify competition law as they rip off consumers and crush competitors.”
Alcoa CEO William Oplinger
The Hill reported, citing the White House, that Oplinger was one of the business people who attended the lunch. He has spoken critically of the Trump administration’s tariffs, saying in late February that tariffs “will destroy about 20,000 direct U.S. aluminum industry jobs and could result in 80,000 indirect jobs being eliminated in the U.S.”
President Donald J. Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attend a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court May 13, 2025. (Win McNamee/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The lunch included over 30 business leaders from a wide range of industries, The Hill reported.
TRUMP CONDEMNS ‘INTERVENTIONALISTS,’ PITCHES ‘MORE HOPEFUL FUTURE’ IN MIDDLE EAST SPEECH
Democratic supporter and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman reportedly received an invitation for the lunch, but he was “not in Riyadh,” according to an X post from his chief of staff.
Regarding his visit to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, Trump said on TruthSocial it was a “great day.”
Greg Norman contributed to this report.