Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman to give $1 million to Trump inauguration
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are each planning to donate $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund as tech executives line up to get on the president-elect’s good side just a month before he takes the oath of office for a second time.
Bezos and the e-commerce giant that he started in the garage of his Seattle-area home in 1994 informed aides to Trump earlier this week that they planned to make the $1 million donation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI who is at legal loggerheads with prominent Trump adviser Elon Musk, is also planning to donate $1 million to the inaugural fund, a spokesperson for Altman told Fox News Digital.
“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.
Earlier this month, the Journal reported that Altman, a registered Democrat, was fearful his damaged relationship with Musk would put his company at a disadvantage during a second Trump administration that will rule on key regulatory decisions that will likely impact OpenAI.
According to the Journal, Altman has been looking to make inroads with Trump’s inner circle by reaching out to friends and associates who know the president-elect and his advisers, including Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, his venture capitalist brother Josh Kushner and others.
Meanwhile, Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021 but remains the company’s largest shareholder, is making the donation through the firm, according to the Journal report.
Amazon will also livestream the inauguration on Prime — which counts as a separate, in-kind donation valued at $1 million, according to the Journal.
The company livestreamed President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, though it was told by the Biden transition team that it was not accepting any donations from tech companies for its inaugural fund.
The Post has sought comment from Amazon and the Trump transition team.
Bezos, the Washington Post owner who spiked a planned editorial endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the Nov. 5 election, is making the trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump, who has been a fierce critic of the mogul.
Last week, Bezos said that he is “optimistic” about Trump’s second term and expressed some excitement about potential regulatory cutbacks in the coming years.
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around,” Bezos told The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York.
“He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I’m going to help him.”
“We do have too many regulations in this country,” Bezos added.
Trump had railed against Bezos and his companies, including Amazon and the Washington Post, during his first term.
In 2019, Amazon argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract.
The Biden administration later pursued a contract with both Amazon and Microsoft.
Earlier this week the Journal revealed that Meta, the tech giant run by another former Trump foil, Mark Zuckerberg, also chipped in $1 million to the inaugural fund.
Zuckerberg, who Trump suggested should be thrown in prison for a $400 million donation he made to a voting nonprofit in 2020, met with the president-elect last month at Mar-a-Lago.
Over dinner, Zuckerberg, who has pledged to remain neutral in his political activities after his social network Facebook limited the sharing of The Post’s exclusive reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020, gifted Trump a pair of Ray Ban smart glasses, according to the Journal.
Bezos and Zuckerberg aren’t the only tech titans who have made it a point to make nice with Trump in recent months.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has managed to establish a rapport with Trump in recent years. The two men have maintained an open channel of communication that has included phone calls as well as meetings over meals.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, whose company has also been accused of putting its thumb on the scale in favor of Democrats, is due to meet with Trump on Thursday.
Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, praised Trump after the magazine that he owns, TIME, named the president-elect its “Man of the Year” for the second time.
With Post Wires
