Tremendous-wealthy tech titans are lining as much as make outsized donations to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund.
Mark Zuckerberg of Fb, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Sam Altman of Open AI are the newest moguls to every pony up similar $1 million items to the fund bankrolling the glitzy Jan. 20 return to energy for Trump.
Amazon may even stream the occasion on its Prime Video platform, a freebie valued at one other $1 million.
The flood of money comes because the billionaires hope to enhance their up-and-down relationship with Trump, who makes little secret of his plan to play favorites with corporations and people perceived as supporters of him and his MAGA agenda.
Elon Musk with President-elect Donald Trump. (Brandon Bell/Getty Pictures)
Trump has commonly trashed each Zuckerberg and Bezos previously, however the moguls have labored arduous to make peace with him.
Zuckerberg has already journeyed to Mar-a-Lago to fulfill with Trump over the Thanksgiving vacation whereas Bezos not too long ago informed a convention that he’s “optimistic” concerning the new administration, particularly Trump’s acknowledged plans to slash laws.
Altman mentioned Friday he’s forking over his personal seven-figure donation in his private capability, however admitted he hopes it makes Trump look favorably on requests to prioritize investments in synthetic intelligence.
“Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman mentioned in a press release.
Trump has solid a really shut relationship in latest months with Elon Musk, the proprietor of Tesla, X and SpaceX who is taken into account the world’s richest man.
Trump has appointed Musk to a newly created submit geared toward slicing authorities spending and disregarded issues that Musk may exploit his energy to guard his corporations’ multi-billion greenback authorities contracts or affect coverage to learn them or harm tech rivals.
Regardless of the potential for conflicts of curiosity, there may be nothing unlawful and even improper concerning the donations. Inaugural committees are required to reveal the supply of their fundraising, however not how they spend the cash.
Firms have historically made up a big share of donors to presidential inaugurals, with an exception in 2009, when then-President-elect Barack Obama refused to simply accept company donations. He reversed course for his second inaugural in 2013 after he received reelection.
Fb didn’t donate to both Joe Biden’s 2021 inaugural or Trump’s 2017 inaugural.
Google donated $285,000 every to Trump’s first inaugural and Biden’s inaugural, in response to Federal Election Fee information.
Microsoft gave $1 million to Obama’s second inaugural, however solely $500,000 to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021.
Amazon had donated roughly $58,000 to Trump’s 2017 inaugural, a lot decrease than the $1 million it now plans to donate. The corporate additionally streamed Biden’s inauguration on Prime Video in 2021.
Initially Revealed: December 13, 2024 at 3:54 PM EST
