Sam Altman joined fellow billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos in announcing $1 million donations to President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural fund, as the tech industry seeks to strengthen relationships with the incoming president after an antagonistic past.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, ... [+]
Altman told Fox Business—which first reported his donation—in a statement Friday that Trump “will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead.”
Altman hasn’t faced direct criticism from Trump and said recently he is “not that worried” about the influence billionaire Elon Musk—who is currently suing Altman—may have on the Trump administration.
Altman’s donation comes just one day after news broke that Bezos’ Amazon is planning to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund and two days after Zuckerberg announced Meta would be doing the same.
Zuckerberg informed Trump’s team of Meta’s planned donation before the two had dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, noting that Meta did not donate to Trump’s first inaugural fund in 2017 nor President Joe Biden’s in 2021.
Bezos is set to meet with Trump next week at Mar-a-Lago, though Amazon’s planned donation was confirmed to CNN Thursday night, and the company said it is also giving a $1 million in-kind donation by streaming the event on Amazon Video.
AI search startup Perplexity will also donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund and will give the administration a free version of its premium software in an effort to “be a good partner to the administration,” chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko told Bloomberg.
Forbes has reached out to OpenAI for confirmation of Altman’s donation.
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Yes. The Federal Election Commission states corporations and labor organizations are allowed to make donations to an inaugural committee and contributions are not subject to any limits. The inaugural committee has to file a report with the FEC detailing donations by the 90th day after the inauguration.
After the election, an inaugural committee is appointed by the president-elect and it is responsible for planning the inauguration ceremony and activities connected with the ceremony, according to the FEC. The inaugural committee plans and finances inaugural events—save for the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol and a luncheon—that it wants to host, including opening ceremonies, parades, galas and balls.
The slew of donations from tech companies comes as executives are working to repair or build relationships with Trump ahead of his second term in the White House. Trump has been openly critical of a number of tech executives—including Bezos and Zuckerberg—and tech companies, especially after being removed from some social media platforms in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Bezos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in nearly a year after the first assassination attempt on Trump earlier this year, saying the then-candidate “showed tremendous grace and courage under literal fire tonight. So thankful for his safety and so sad for the victims and their families.” After Trump won, Bezos congratulated him on “an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.” When Zuckerberg met with Trump last month, a Meta spokesperson said the CEO was “grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and…meet with members of his team about the incoming administration,” and a Trump aide told Fox Zuckerberg saw Trump as an “agent of change and…prosperity.”
Other donations coming in. The Washington Post reported Google CEO Sundar Pichai had a scheduled sit-down with Trump earlier this week. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce and owner of Time magazine—which just named Trump its person of the year—said in a post on X, “This marks a time of great promise for our nation. We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone.”
Forbes’ estimates Altman has a net worth of $1.1 billion as of Friday afternoon. We estimate Bezos has a net worth of about $242 billion, making him the second wealthiest person in the world, and Zuckerberg has a net worth of about $214.3 billion, making him the third wealthiest person.