Several prominent tech leaders are planning to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration this month, the latest sign that the industry is trying to bolster its relationship with the president-elect ahead of his return to the White House.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to go to the swearing-in ceremony on Jan 20, said a company spokesperson. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg also plans to go to the event, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private information. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.
Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will be at some of the surrounding festivities, according to the company. Uber also plans to host an inauguration party in Washington with Elon Musk’s X social media firm, formerly Twitter; and The Free Press, a media company.
Coinbase Global CEO Brian Armstrong has been invited to events around the inaugural including a presidential dinner, the company said.
The prospect of a second Trump term has raised a new set of uncertainties for the rapidly evolving AI market and the wider tech industry. During his first term, Trump clashed with Silicon Valley on issues such as immigration and online content moderation. He has also previously directed his ire at executives such as Zuckerberg and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
In recent weeks, Meta and Amazon pledged to donate US$1 million ($1.37 million) to Trump’s inauguration fund. Zuckerberg and Bezos have also dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. And Zuckerberg has been pivoting his stable of social networking apps to become more Trump-friendly, including by eliminating outside fact-checking and loosening the rules around what people can say on the service.
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Altman, meanwhile, personally donated US$1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund after having previously given money to President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.
“I think AGI will probably get developed during this president’s term, and getting that right seems really important,” Altman told Bloomberg Businessweek in a recent interview, referring to a hypothetical, advanced form of AI. “Supporting the inauguration, I think that’s a relatively small thing. I don’t view that as a big decision either way. But I do think we all should wish for the president’s success.”
Trump’s party pledged in its platform to undo Biden’s executive order on AI, saying that it “imposes Radical Leftwing ideas” on the field. With Trump’s win, Musk has also gained newfound influence in Washington. That’s sparked concerns Musk could pursue policies that favour his own companies, including his artificial intelligence startup xAI.
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Altman, whose company is in a legal battle with Musk, recently said he does not think the billionaire will use his political power against rivals like OpenAI.
In addition to Altman, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and chief product officer Kevin Weil also plan to be at the inauguration, according to a company spokesperson. OpenAI also has hired a lobbying firm run by a well-known figure in Trump world, Jeff Miller, according to a filing.
