OAN Staff James Meyers
12:06 PM – Friday, December 13, 2024
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are each planning to donate $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund as the tech executives look to build a strong relationship with the President-elect over the next four years.
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Bezos and Amazon informed aides to Trump earlier this week that they planned to make the $1 million donation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI who currently in a legal dispute with Trump ally Elon Musk, is also planning to donate $1 million to the inaugural fund, according to 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 Wall Street Journal reported that Altman, who is a registered Democrat, was afraid that his damaged relationship with Musk could potentially put his company at risk during a second Trump administration, which could rule on major regulatory decisions that could impact OpenAI.
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 Wall Street Journal report.
Amazon is set to livestream Trump’s inauguration on Prime Video, which counts as a separate, in-kind donation of $1 million.
Amazon also livestreamed Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, but it was told by the Biden transition team that it wasn’t accepting any donations from tech companies for its inaugural fund.
Meanwhile, Bezos is making a trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump, who is known as a critic of the Amazon founder.
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.
During his first term, Trump heavily criticized Bezos and his companies, which included Amazon and the Washington Post.
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.
However, the Biden administration pursued a contract with Amazon and Microsoft during its tenure.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook also announced earlier this week that he would be floating $1 million to the inaugural fund.
Zuckerberg, whose company Facebook limited the sharing of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, gave Trump a pair of Ray Ban smart glasses during a dinner to help smooth things over, according to the Journal.
Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, whose company has also been accused of favoring Democrats, is set to meet with Trump next week.
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