by Xinhua writer Xia Lin
NEW YORK, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- One after another, U.S. tech giants have bowed to President-elect Donald Trump, with Meta, Amazon and OpenAI each pledging 1 million U.S. dollars to his inauguration fund. On Jan. 20, Trump will kick off his second term with the promise to drain the bloated federal government.
OpenAI confirmed on Friday that CEO Sam Altman intends to make a personal donation of 1 million dollars, following reports that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has already contributed 1 million dollars to the fund. Amazon has also promised 1 million dollars to the fund.
Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has an upcoming meeting scheduled with Trump. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, remarking on his relationship with Trump, said "We are turning the page," while Time, the publication he owns, named Trump "Person of Year."
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the world's richest man and CEO of X, Tesla and SpaceX, has become a regular presence by Trump's side at Mar-a-Lago. He spent 277 million dollars to help get Trump elected.
As part of the power game, many in Silicon Valley view billionaire Musk's role as an adviser in the Trump administration as a line into the White House. Musk has vowed to drastically cut government regulations, which has been applauded by many in the tech industry.
RING KISSING
Taken together, the donations and other celebratory gestures showcase an industry kissing the ring of an incoming president in hopes of something in return, Margaret O'Mara, a Silicon Valley historian at the University of Washington, told National Public Radio.
"It's just a recognition that there's not much to be gained in outspoken opposition, but perhaps there is something to be gained by being very clear about your support and hope that Trump does well," she said.
To a multi-trillion-dollar company, a 1-million-dollar donation amounts to "a rounding error," noted the historian. But companies are eager for Trump not to regulate sectors like artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, where "many of them have made personal, and as businesses, major investments."
Corporations have traditionally made up a large share of donors to U.S. presidential inaugurals, with an exception in 2009, when then-President-elect Barack Obama refused to accept corporate donations. He reversed course for his second inaugural in 2013.
Facebook did not donate to either Joe Biden's 2021 inaugural or Trump's 2017 inaugural. Amazon donated roughly 58,000 dollars to Trump's 2017 inaugural. Google donated 285,000 dollars each to Trump's first inaugural and Biden's inaugural, according to the Federal Election Commission records. Microsoft gave 1 million dollars to Obama's second inaugural, but only 500,000 dollars to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021.
For Trump's 2017 inauguration, which raised an eye-popping 107 million dollars, his biggest donors were largely affiliated with sports teams, casinos, venture capital firms and banks.
PATCHING TIES
"Trump's relationship with social media and tech companies has, in the past, been tenuous if not downright hostile," said CBS News on Friday.
OpenAI recently hired key executives who previously worked for Democratic administrations. This summer, OpenAI named Chris Lehane, a lawyer who served in the Bill Clinton White House, as its vice president of global affairs. Its new chief economist, Aaron Chatterji, served as a senior economist in President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Biden.
Trump and Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos have clashed in recent years, with Trump accusing Bezos of using The Washington Post, owned by the latter, to his personal advantage. In 2019, Amazon argued in a court case that Trump's bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a 10-billion-dollar Pentagon contract.
Also, Trump has long been critical of Meta's social media platforms, but in recent weeks, its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Zuckerberg has sought to repair his relationship with Trump and other Republican leaders over the last few months after he received blowback in 2021 for banning Trump from Meta's platforms following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said USA Today. ■