Sam Altman to donate $1 million in personal funds to Trump's inauguration fund

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-elect Trump's inaugural fund, joining various other tech leaders who have made similar contributions this week.

The $1 million donation will come from Altman's funds rather than from the ChatGPT maker itself, his spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. This differs from his industry competitors, including Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and Jeff Bezos' Amazon, which each made $1 million contributions as companies.

“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 statement Friday shared by his spokesperson.

The planned donation was first reported by Fox News.

While contributions to presidential inaugural funds are not new, some observers have seen the moves as part of broader efforts by the tech industry to court Trump ahead of his second term, especially in the wake of his emerging relationship with tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Zuckerberg and Trump had a somewhat contentious relationship since Facebook banned the former president from the platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. At one point, the former president labeled Facebook an “enemy of the people.”

Trump's relationship with Amazon and Bezos was also rocky in the president-elect's first term.

Trump went after Amazon and The Washington Post. In 2019, the e-commerce giant argued in court it was not picked for a Pentagon contract due to Bezos’s past criticism of Trump.

For his part, Musk has taken particular issue with OpenAI, which he helped found in 2015 alongside Altman and others. The Tesla and SpaceX owner has accused Altman and OpenAI of manipulating him into supporting the artificial intelligence (AI) endeavor by convincing him it would develop safe and transparent AI.

He has an ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its founding principles as a nonprofit to become a for-profit company.

Altman, along with Bezos, has brushed aside concerns Musk would try to suppress his competitors with his growing influence in the political world.

Altman said earlier this month he was “tremendously sad” over his tension with Musk, but believes he will do the "right thing."

“I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing and that it would be profoundly un-American to use political power to the degree that Elon would hurt competitors and advantage his own businesses,” he told the New York Times DealBook conference.

Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post and aerospace company Blue Origin, expressed similar feelings about Musk in spite of their various spats over the years.

The Amazon owner told the DealBook conference he took Musk “at face value” and does not believe he will attempt to punish his enemies.

Musk, amid concerns, reposted Altman's and Bezos's remarks last week, writing "they are right" in a signal he does not plan to use his influence to hurt or seek revenge on his industry competitors

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