Google and Microsoft are every donating $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund – becoming a member of a slew of tech corporations bankrolling the celebrations as they search to garner help from the incoming administration.
Google and Microsoft confirmed the donations with The Submit.
“Google is pleased to support the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage. We’re also donating to the inaugural committee,” Karan Bhatia, Google’s international head of presidency affairs and public coverage, instructed The Submit.
Google has donated to previous inaugural funds, and its promotion of the inauguration’s livestream falls in keeping with previous years — however its $1 million donation is greater than triple the $285,000 given to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017, in accordance with Federal Election Fee filings reviewed by Newsweek.
Microsoft has additionally contributed to previous inaugural funds – giving $500,000 to each President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 and Trump’s first in 2017.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – who’s presently embroiled in a authorized battle with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Trump’s shut ally and main marketing campaign donor – introduced a $1 million donation to the inaugural fund late final 12 months, as did Meta. Amazon and Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner have additionally reportedly contributed to the fund.
Not like a presidential marketing campaign, there are not any limits to how a lot a person may give to an inaugural fund, which funds the opening ceremonies, galas and occasions.
Main tech companies have been cozying as much as the president-elect as his second time period nears as they worry his previous feedback indicating he wouldn’t rule out antitrust enforcement.
It’s of specific concern for Google, whose search engine was dominated an unlawful monopoly in August 2024. A verdict for a second antitrust case towards Google’s promoting enterprise has not but been introduced.
“Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump wrote in a publish on his platform Reality Social in December.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai congratulated Trump on his “decisive victory” in a publish on X and met with the president-elect after the election – one other signal the tech chief is making an attempt to curry favor with the subsequent administration.
Earlier this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced that Meta is ending its fact-checking and content material moderation insurance policies – a win for Trump and Musk, who’ve vehemently opposed free speech restrictions on social media platforms.
Zuckerberg talked about Trump in his announcement, saying he desires to work with the president-elect to forestall censorship and calling out “legacy media” for writing about misinformation after Trump’s first election win. The tech tycoon additionally just lately dined with Trump the day earlier than Thanksgiving.
It’s a pointy reversal for Meta, which banned Trump’s Fb account after the Jan. 6 assaults on the Capitol. Zuckerberg has spoken out towards Trump a number of occasions over time – condemning his rhetoric towards the Black Lives Matter motion and expressing his considerations over Trump’s 2017 immigration insurance policies.
Meta didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Tensions heated up this previous summer time, when Trump threatened Zuckerberg with jail time in his ebook after he and his spouse donated lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to help election infrastructure in 2020.
Throughout a press convention on Tuesday, Trump was requested whether or not he believed Zuckerberg was “directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past.” He responded: “Probably.”
