Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are each looking to reciprocate Donald Trump's favor with their technology companies, one month before he takes the oath of office. Executives are lining up to donate $1 million to his inaugural fund.
Mr. Bezos and the e-commerce giant he founded in his Seattle-area garage in 1994 said earlier this week that it plans to donate $1 million to Mr. Trump's aides. According to the Wall Street Journal.
Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, who is in legal conflict with Trump's prominent adviser Elon Musk, will also contribute $1 million to the founding fund. Altman's spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“President Trump will lead our nation into the AI era, and I look forward to supporting his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman said in a written statement.
Early this month, The Journal reported that Altman said:A registered Democrat, he said the deterioration of his relationship with Musk puts his company at a disadvantage under the second Trump administration as it makes important regulatory decisions that are likely to affect OpenAI. I was worried that I would be killed.
According to the paper, Altman contacted friends and associates who knew the president-elect and his advisers, including Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and venture capitalist brother Josh Kushner, It is said that he is trying to infiltrate his relationship with his aides. others.
Meanwhile, the Journal reported that although Bezos stepped down as Amazon's CEO in 2021, he remains the company's largest shareholder and continues to make donations through the company.
Amazon will also livestream the inauguration on Prime, which will be counted separately as an in-kind donation worth $1 million, the magazine said.
The company livestreamed President Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration, but was told by Biden's transition team that it would not be accepting donations from tech companies to fund the inauguration.
The newspaper has reached out to Amazon and the Trump transition team for comment.
Mr. Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, which soared editorial support for Vice President Kamala Harris days before the Nov. 5 election, was on hand to meet Mr. Trump, who has been a fierce critic of the mogul. He is visiting Mar-a-Lago. .
Bezos last week said he was “optimistic” about President Trump's second term and expressed some excitement about the potential for regulatory cuts in the coming years.
“I'm very optimistic about this,” Bezos said at the New York Times' Dealbook Summit in New York.
“He seems to have a lot of energy for reducing regulations. If I can help with that, I'm going to help him.”
“There are too many regulations in this country,” Bezos added.
During his first term, Mr. Trump was harshly critical of Mr. Bezos and his companies, including Amazon and the Washington Post.
In 2019, Amazon argued in court that President Trump's bias against the company hurt its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract.
The Biden administration has since pursued deals with both Amazon and Microsoft.
Earlier this week, the paper revealed that tech giant Meta, run by another former Trump supporter, Mark Zuckerberg, also contributed $1 million to the startup fund.
Mr. Zuckerberg, who suggested Mr. Trump should go to jail over $400 million he donated to voting rights nonprofits in 2020, met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago last month.
Over dinner, Zucker vowed to remain neutral in politics after the social network Facebook restricted him from sharing The Post's exclusive reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop in 2020, the newspaper reported. Berg said he gave Trump a pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses. .
Mr. Bezos and Mr. Zuckerberg are not the only tech giants to emphasize their friendship with President Trump in recent months.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been able to build a good relationship with President Trump in recent years. The two have maintained open communication channels, including phone calls and meetings over meals.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who has also been accused of supporting Democrats, is scheduled to meet with President Trump on Thursday.
Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff praised Trump after his magazine Time named the president-elect its Person of the Year for the second time. praised.
with post wire
