Altman follows Zuckerberg, Bezos with $1M Trump donation

OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman on Friday said he will donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund as a gesture of goodwill towards the President-elect before he officially takes office on January 20th.

The move comes just one day after fellow tech billionaires Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos also announced million-dollar donations to the Trump fund.

Amazon has also said it would be live streaming the inauguration on Prime Business as a “separate, in-kind donation,” which the company said was valued at $1 million.

Unlike Zuckerberg and Bezos, who funneled their donations through their tech companies, Altman’s donation will come from his personal coffers, according to the Associated Press.

“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 released Friday.

Since winning the US presidency in November, Trump has met with several tech moguls at his Mar-a-Lago estate, including Altman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Zuckerberg and Bezos, who’ve both had frosty relationships with the President-elect in the past, also accepted invitations to sit down with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in recent weeks.

Silicon Valley leaders have been cozying up to Trump, especially over the past few months, eager to get on Trump’s good side with the hopes of having a say in how big tech and AI innovation is handled over the next four years, a growing concern for Altman as OpenAI continues to expand its large model capabilities.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, an active supporter of the President’s policies throughout the campaign, has been chosen to serve as the co-head of a new Department of Government Efficiency – acronym DOGE – aimed at reducing excess government waste and regulation.

Altman, who is in a protracted legal battle with Musk over the non-profit status of the AI startup he co-founded with the tech billionaire, said earlier this month he was “not that worried” the beef between the two would carry over into politics.

Even so, Altman, whose company released a scathing blog on Friday slamming Musk for 'hypocritically' fighting to keep OpenAI non-profit via the courts, followed up his comment by noting that he “may turn out to be wrong.”