OpenAI's Altman joins $1 million donation to Trump's inauguration
Kyiv • UNN
Sam Altman of OpenAI announced a $1 million donation to Trump's inaugural fund. He was followed by Amazon and Meta, which also pledged $1 million each, despite previous conflicts with Trump.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed his support for Donald Trump, pledging to donate $1 million to the US president-elect's inaugural fund. This was reported by UNN with reference to Newsweek.
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An OpenAI spokesperson said that Altman will make a personal donation of $1 million to Trump. Altman noted that "President Trump will lead our country into the age of artificial intelligence, and I look forward to supporting his efforts to keep America ahead.
Altman's decision comes amid his ongoing legal battle with another tech billionaire, Elon Musk, who became an ardent Trump supporter and major donor earlier this year. Musk founded OpenAI in 2015 with Altman and others, but left the company in 2018.
Altman had previously warned that Musk would use his new "political power" to "harm" his competitors and enrich himself, which, according to Altman, "would be deeply anti-American.
At the time of the news of Altman's donation, two large tech companies (Amazon and Meta) also announced that they would contribute to Trump's inaugural fund .
Interestingly, the relationship between Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, was previously quite tense. After Trump was blocked from Facebook following the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump repeatedly accused Facebook of "censorship" and even threatened to imprison Zuckerberg.
Elon Musk, for his part, has repeatedly expressed his support for Trump, becoming one of his largest donors.
Trump also criticized Amazon for taking advantage of tax advantages, as well as for destroying competition due to its low tax rate. Another problem was Trump's relationship with The Washington Post, which is controlled by Jeff Bezos. Trump has repeatedly accused the newspaper of being biased against him and criticizing his administration. In addition, Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that Bezos, being a billionaire, owns a powerful media network, which, according to Trump, gives him excessive influence on public opinion.
