They Don’t Want Any Trouble, Zuckerberg Banned Trump From FB Previously and is Now Donating $1 Million Towards Inaugural Fund
Silicon Valley executives, some who have long had contentious relationships with President-elect Donald Trump, are pledging money and support to Trump’s incoming administration.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman intends to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, the company confirmed to NPR on Friday.
It follows news that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has already contributed $1 million to the fund. And Amazon has also promised a $1 million infusion into Trump’s inauguration coffers.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has an upcoming meeting scheduled with Trump. And Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently said of his relationship with Trump, “We are turning the page.” Soon after, the publication he owns, Time, declared Trump “Person of Year.”
Taken together, the donations and other celebratory gestures showcase an industry kissing the ring of an incoming president in hopes of something in return, says Margaret O’Mara, a Silicon Valley historian at the University of Washington.
“It’s just a recognition that there’s not much to be gained in outspoken opposition, but perhaps there is something to be gained by being very clear about your support and hope that Trump does well,” she says.
To a multi-trillion-dollar company, O’Mara says, a $1 million donation amounts to “a rounding error.” But companies are eager for Trump not to regulate sectors like artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, where “many of them have made personal, and as businesses, major investments.”
Many in Silicon Valley view billionaire Elon Musk’s role as an adviser in the Trump administration as a line into the White House.
Musk, who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help Trump win reelection, has vowed to drastically cut government regulations, which has been celebrated by many in the tech industry.
But questions remain over whether Musk’s priorities for federal support of tech will benefit the industry overall, or give an advantage to the six companies he operates
Patching relationships, hoping for fewer regulations
Other tech leaders are already signaling their intentions.
In a statement to NPR, Altman said: “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” he said.
For others, it’s about patching up a once-rocky relationship.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who once banned Trump from Facebook — dined with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida at the end of November. It comes just months after Trump threatened to throw Zuckerberg in prison over Trump’s belief that Zuckerberg interfered in the 2020 election by making a significant investment in election infrastructure.
In addition to Amazon’s committed $1 million to the inauguration fund, the tech giant plans to stream Trump’s inauguration in January on its Prime Video platform, The Wall Street Journal first reported. Amazon has not responded to NPR’s request for comment.
It’s not unusual for Silicon Valley companies to support an incoming presidential administration — but that support is no longer being back-channeled in closed-door meetings and through industry associations. Instead, the University of Washington’s O’Mara says tech moguls are leaning into their Trump cheerleading.
“And that is something new,” she says.
It is also an attempt to avoid a repeat of Trump’s first term, when tensions between the White House and tech leaders ran high.
Back then, Trump frequently rebuked The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, for the paper’s coverage of his presidency. The conflict escalated in 2019 when the Pentagon awarded a $10 billion contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon. The company later accused Trump of using the military budget to pursue a personal agenda.
