One of the things that made President Donald Trump’s inauguration distinctive was the prominence of Silicon Valley elite.

Easily identifiable were the world’s three richest men – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. And that’s not to mention some of the billionaires not placed directly in view of the cameras.

When the riches of the billionaire tech founders, millionaire business people and wealthy politicians are totted up there was more than $1trn – over a thousand billion – in the rotunda of the Capitol on Monday morning.

The richest of them all, topping the Forbes real-time billionaires list, was Elon Musk.

The South African serial entrepreneur makes his money through ownership of electric car company Tesla and space exploration company Space X.

His fortune is $433.9bn, according to Forbes.

Next on the rich list is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $239.4bn through his ownership of company shares.

Mr Bezos’ part-ownership of The Washington Post led to some speculation he played a role in the paper saying it would not endorse a candidate in the US election for the first time in 36 years.

Third-richest on Forbes’ list is Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, worth $211.8bn.

His company owns social networks Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The influence of changing political winds could be seen in Meta’s recent decision to roll back fact-checking.

While there was no sign of the world’s fourth-richest man – Oracle founder Larry Ellison – the man who occupies the fifth spot, Bernard Arnault, was there with his family.

The Frenchman’s luxury goods giant LVMH owns brands including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon and Sephora, with his net worth estimated by Forbes at $181.3bn.

Less familiar to a UK audience – but still hugely wealthy – is Miriam Adelson, who along with her family is ranked 55th richest in the world by Forbes.

Their net worth of $31.9bn was garnered through casinos. Her husband Sheldon Adelson founded the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort company.

A supporter of the new president, Ms Adelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Mr Trump in 2018.

On the lower end of the Forbes rich list – coming in 89th – is media magnate Rupert Murdoch, valued at $22.2bn.

His Fox network is a favourite of the US president but he made a chunk of his wealth in the UK, where he bought The Times and The Sun newspapers.

Aside from Fox, in the US he owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

If these six people were the only attendees, there would be more than $1.12trn in the room.

That’s about a third of the entire economic output of the UK. The UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) – the standard measure of an economy’s value and everything it produces – is $3.73trn, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Added to that are the billions and millions owned by tech royalty such as Apple founder Tim Cook, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and OpenAI founder Sam Altman.

And none of this is to mention the riches of the political dynasties in attendance – the Bushs, Clintons and Trumps.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will travel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this week to court potential investors in UK growth projects, joining hundreds of political and economic leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps in the shadow of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Ms Reeves will join political leaders including German chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and a vice premier of the Chinese Communist Party, with the agenda likely to be set by Mr Trump’s opening gambits in office.

The incoming president had promised the imposition of tariffs on imports, and while they did not feature in the day-one commitments at his inauguration, his second term carries the threat of upending global trade and fundamentally altering America’s security commitments.

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Mr Trump will address the event remotely at the end of proceedings on Thursday, and before then the WEF will provide a platform for the first public reaction from international political leaders to his plans.

Perhaps as important for the 4,000 or so delegates is the opportunity it provides for private meetings and bilateral conversations.

The chancellor’s focus during a 36-hour visit will be on drumming up investment and reassuring potential partners about the stability of the UK economy and the viability of her plans for growth.

Those plans have been under scrutiny since the turn of the year after fluctuations in debt markets forced the cost of government borrowing up, in turn threatening the fiscal rules Ms Reeves says are central to her credibility.

While largely driven up by international factors, particularly the impact of Mr Trump’s policies, borrowing costs receded at the end of last week after better-than-expected UK inflation figures, easing the short-term political pressure.

What’s on the agenda?

Ms Reeves does not feel she has anything to apologise for following the bumpy start to 2025, but Davos offers her an opportunity to make the case publicly and privately for her plans, with the hope of securing some tangible investment commitments.

She will meet leading financiers convened by JP Morgan and its chief executive Jamie Dimon, investors including the chief executive of OTTP, a leading Canadian pension fund, and address the country strategic dialogue, a private meeting of more than 80 executives, and attend a lunch arranged by business lobby group the CBI.

She will also give a round of interviews to international media outlets in which she will stress her plans to stabilise the economy, reform public services, and begin the structural supply-side reforms she believes are fundamental to encouraging growth.

She will not be alone in seeking to leverage the unique convening power of the annual meeting to her advantage. More than 50 heads of state and as many finance ministers will be in Davos, drawn by the presence of three times as many chief executives and chairs of major companies, corporations and wealth funds.

While public sessions will be dominated by discussion of current opportunities and challenges, including the ubiquitous AI, privately the event offers the 4,000 delegates a chance to speed-date with their peers.

David Beckham and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg will lend a little celebrity to an event that remains overwhelmingly earnest and self-assured.

Now in its 54th year, the WEF has been a crucible for the principles of globalisation and the liberal economic consensus, which maintains that only open markets and cooperation can deliver profit, prosperity and social justice.

Its immodest mission, set out by founder Klaus Schwab and featuring on the merchandise handed to participants, remains “committed to improving the state of the world”.

Not on the agenda is the question of whether the annual gathering of the billionaire class – Davos’ private jet traffic is notorious- has achieved that goal.

Rachel Reeves will hold talks with some of Wall Street’s leading financiers in Davos this week, less than hours after Donald Trump’s second US presidency gets underway.

Sky News understands that the chancellor will attend a breakfast hosted by JP Morgan on Wednesday amid speculation about the threat of US tariffs being imposed on the UK as well as the prospects for a bilateral trade deal between the two countries.

Among those attending the meeting will be Filippo Gori, JP Morgan’s European chief; Richard Gnodde, who runs Goldman Sachs’s international operations; Sharon Yeshaya, Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer; and Jenny Johnson, president and chief executive of Franklin Templeton.

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The talks, to be held during the annual World Economic Forum, will come amid growing concern about the impact of the chancellor’s October budget on sentiment among international investors in Britain.

Despite hailing £63bn of investment committed at a key summit, weeks before Ms Reeves’s first fiscal event, the government’s non-dom reforms have sparked fears about an exodus of wealth creators from the UK.

The chancellor will use Wednesday’s event to talk up the government’s economic agenda, even after a torrid period which saw a spike in the cost of government borrowing, sparking brief comparisons with the aftermath of the Liz Truss administration’s mini-budget in 2022.

City sources said that Alexandra Soto, Lazard’s chief operating officer; David Livingstone, Citi’s chief client officer; and Philip Freise, KKR’s co-head of European private equity would be among those also attending the meeting.

Ms Reeves will hold other meetings with bankers, foreign governments and British company chiefs during her trip to Davos.

Earlier this month, she travelled to China for the first formal financial summit between the two countries for about six years.

The Treasury has been contacted for comment, while none of the firms represented at Wednesday’s summit who were contacted by Sky News would comment.