OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has become the latest tech billionaire to signal allegiance to Donald Trump by pledging to donate to the president-elect’s inaugural fund.
An OpenAI spokesperson told Newsweek on Friday that Altman would make a $1 million “personal donation” to Trump’s fund. Altman said in a statement that “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead.”
Altman’s decision comes amid his ongoing legal battle with fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk, who became a staunch Trump supporter and mega-donor earlier this year. In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI along with Altman and others, then left the company in 2018.
Altman warned earlier this month that Musk was using his newfound “political power” to “hurt” his competitors and enrich himself, which “would be profoundly un-American.”
In the 48 hours preceding news of Altman’s donation, the following two tech giants announced that they would be donating to Trump’s inaugural fund:
- Meta: News reports Wednesday said the Facebook parent company would be donating $1 million to the fund, sparking anger from some on both sides of the political aisle. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida two weeks before the donation became public.
- Amazon: The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Amazon would also be donating $1 million to Trump’s fund. Company founder Jeff Bezos was reportedly planning his own visit to Mar-a-Lago next week.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office and the Trump transition team via email on Friday.
Before Zuckerberg’s recent meeting with Trump and his decision to have Meta donate to the inaugural fund, he and the president-elect had a very rocky relationship.
Trump accused Facebook of “censorship” after he was banned from the platform following the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Trump has also repeatedly threatened to jail Zuckerberg and said without evidence that he was involved in a plot to help President Joe Biden “steal” the 2020 election.
At the same time, Zuckerberg rarely made public remarks about Trump, although he did praise him for raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt in July, calling it “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Zuckerberg also quickly congratulated Trump after he won last month’s election. In a post to Threads, he praised him for “a decisive victory” and said he was “looking forward” to working with the incoming administration just hours after Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bezos seemingly experienced his own rapid change of opinion regarding Trump in the months before Amazon‘s inaugural donation. He blocked the editorial board of The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing Harris, citing concerns about “bias.”
Facebook did not donate to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017 or Biden’s inauguration fund in 2021, according to the Associated Press. Amazon donated around $58,000 to Trump’s first inauguration and streamed Biden’s inauguration.
