OpenAI's Sam Altman to donate $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration fund

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OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman will donate $1 million of his personal money to Donald Trump's inaugural fund, the company confirmed Friday, the latest in a series of gifts from Big Tech and Silicon Valley to show their support for the US president-elect.

The move comes just days after Amazon and Meta, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced their own $1 million donations to the Trump fund. Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, also confirmed Friday that it had donated $1 million to the fund, as first reported by Bloomberg.

Tech companies were quick to congratulate Trump after his election victory in November, as they seek to build relationships with the Republican before he takes office next year.

Trump's growing friendship with West Coast investors and tech executives this year contrasts with the cooler reception he received when he first won the vote in 2016.

A few prominent figures, such as Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, supported Trump then, but Silicon Valley, widely seen as a Democratic stronghold, largely shunned him. Altman himself responded to Trump's first election victory by posting on Twitter: This seems like the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life. Altman's donation to the fund was first reported by Fox News.

But Trump has formed closer relationships with the tech community over the past year, traveling to San Francisco for fundraisers and appearing on popular podcasts including Joe Rogan's show and All-In, hosted by four Silicon Valley investors.

Trump has tapped Elon Musk as one of his closest advisors and as an important bridge between Washington and San Francisco. Other prominent Silicon Valley figures have been tapped for positions in administration or as informal advisors.

Last week, venture capitalist and All-In host David Sacks was announced as Trump's AI and crypto czar, and investor Marc Andreessen was used as a sounding board for appointments to the new Department of Government Effectiveness, which will be co-led by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Altman's relationship with the Trump administration is complicated by the presence of Musk, who is suing OpenAI over its push to become a for-profit public benefit corporation. Musk, a former investor and co-founder of OpenAI, claimed the move was an attempt to monopolize the generative artificial intelligence market. Musk also launched his own AI startup, xAI.

At a Reuters event this week, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said she trusts Musk as a competitor. [to] prioritize the national interest and compete appropriately.

On Friday, OpenAI claimed in a blog post that Elon Musk had, in 2017, while still co-chairman of OpenAI, suggested and supported a for-profit component with him at the helm.

When he didn't get majority ownership and full control, he walked away and told us we were going to fail. Now that OpenAI is the leading AI research lab and Elon runs a competing AI company, he is asking the court to stop us from effectively pursuing our mission, OpenAI said in the post.

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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