OpenAI’s Sam Altman to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund

OpenAI said Friday that its CEO, Sam Altman, was planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with Trump.

“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 said in a written statement sent to The New York Times.

His planned donation was first reported by Fox News.

Earlier this week, tech giants Amazon and Meta said they were each putting $1 million into the inaugural fund.

Trump and Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, have clashed in recent years. Trump has criticised the Amazon founder over reporting in The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos. But more recently, Bezos has praised Trump on social media and said he was “very optimistic” about the incoming Trump administration.

Trump has long been critical of Meta’s social media platforms, saying they censor conservative viewpoints. But in recent weeks, its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Altman and OpenAI recently hired key executives who previously worked for Democratic administrations. This summer, OpenAI named Chris Lehane, a lawyer who served in the Clinton White House, as its vice president of global affairs. Its new chief economist, Ronnie Chatterji, served as a senior economist in President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Joe Biden.

The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023 for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The companies deny the claims.