Sam Altman—Sam Altman supported Trump's second term with $1M donation and inauguration attendance
In January 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a personal $1 million donation to Trump's inauguration fund (Jan 3), attended the inauguration ceremony at the Capitol (Jan 20), and the next day stood alongside President Trump at a White House press conference to announce Stargate, a joint venture with Oracle and SoftBank planning to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure. This marked a stark contrast to Altman's 2016 blog post comparing Trump to Hitler.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government Ethics & Anti-Corruption | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.550 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.73)
Evidence (3 signals)
Announced $500B Stargate AI infrastructure project at White House with Trump
On January 21, 2025, Sam Altman stood alongside President Trump at a White House press conference to announce Stargate, a joint venture with Oracle and SoftBank planning to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure. Altman praised Trump, saying 'For AGI to get built here, to create hundreds of thousands of jobs... we wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr. President.' The announcement came just one day after Trump's inauguration.
Attended Trump's 2025 inauguration ceremony at the Capitol
Sam Altman was among a select group of tech executives who attended Trump's swearing-in ceremony inside the Capitol on January 20, 2025. Unlike Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who had prime spots on the dais under the Capitol rotunda, Altman was relegated to the overflow room.
Made personal $1 million donation to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a personal donation of $1 million to Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration fund. This was a personal contribution from Altman, not a corporate donation from OpenAI.