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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon Inc. Jeff Bezos plan to donate $1 million each to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, according to reports from Fox and Wall Street Journal.
TechCrunch has confirmed Altman’s plans to allocate the money personally, which does not come directly from OpenAI.
The billionaire donations come on the heels of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta plans to also donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund as America’s most powerful tech leaders inch closer to the incoming administration. Inaugural funds are used for activities related to the presidential inauguration in January.
The newspaper reported that Amazon’s donation is being prepared while Bezos, the company’s CEO, heads to Mar-a-Lago to visit Trump next week. The relationship between Bezos and Trump has been fraught in the past. During his first term, Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon’s business practices and attacked The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, for criticizing his administration.
This time, Bezos made a concerted effort to mend those relationships. Bezos Forbidden The Washington Post endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, congratulating Trump on his “extraordinary political comeback” on X.
“President Trump will lead our country into the age of artificial intelligence, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead of the curve,” Altman, who has not faced public criticism from Trump so far, told TechCrunch in a statement.
Silicon Valley largely expects Trump to downplay regulation of artificial intelligence, which they say is necessary for the United States to remain competitive on a global scale. While Altman has no known disagreement with Trump, the OpenAI founder is in the midst of a legal battle with Elon Musk, another close Trump ally, over OpenAI’s attempts to transition into a for-profit company.
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