Sam Altman pledges $1.6m to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund
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The news: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will donate USD1 million ($1.57 million) of personal funds to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, the company told media on Friday.
The context: Altman joins similar recent contributions of the same amount to the fund from Big Tech and Silicon Valley, including Amazon, Meta and AI firm Perplexity.
Altman’s donation was first reported by Fox News. It comes as Silicon Valley leaders change their stance on Trump ahead of his second term at the White House.
While the tech community largely shunned Trump after his 2016 win, with Altman then calling it “the worst thing to happen in my life,” this year has seen a marked shift.
Trump has actively courted the sector, attending fundraisers and appearing on prominent podcasts like All-In, hosted by venture capitalist David Sacks, who is now his AI and crypto tsar.
Elon Musk, has become a close Trump adviser and a central figure connecting Washington and Silicon Valley, amid tensions with Altman stemming from Musk’s lawsuit over OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit model.
Other tech leaders, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have also sought to mend relations with Trump after rocky pasts.
Zuckerberg, who banned Trump from Facebook post-Capitol riots, recently praised him as "badass" in a social media post and dined with him in November.
Tech leaders appear motivated by hopes to avoid regulation of AI and cryptocurrency, industries where they’ve made significant investments.
