alt Hacker NewsA CEO's time isn't that valuable. Even if you count an amortized fraction of their total compensation, sending them to a White House event for an evening is orders of magnitude less costly than giving up access to the best software development tools.
I think you have to add in the cost of PR toxicity for being so closely associated with Trump, though. Most of these guys are from the prime liberal subculture of America, even if in private they lean another way. Traditionally they've never emitted so much praise or support for one president over another, but with Trump it seems like the price of entry to get in on e.g. AI discussions around regulation or funding. Musk is arguably a player in the space but wasn't involved due to some falling out with Trump.