A photograph captured during the event showed Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk using smartphones. Pichai was seen with what appeared to be Google's latest Pixel 9 series (which makes sense for the Google boss), while Musk held an iPhone 16 Pro — a surprising choice considering Musk's past criticism of Apple.

As Elon Musk became the center of attention at Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, users on social media posted videos from the event, claiming that he was found laughing while looking at memes on his phone.

“There are rumors that Elon Musk has again challenged Mark Zuckerberg for a fight,” joked an X user and shared the photo. “For Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai, phone is way more important than President Trump,” commented another. A third joked, “These kids and their damn phones.”