OpenAI’s Altman will donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund

By: Sarah Parvini, The Associated Press Posted: Last Modified:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/12/2024 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration.

A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the move on Friday. The announcement comes one day after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it donated $1 million to the same fund. Amazon also said it plans to donate $1 million.

“President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman said in a statement.

FILE - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an Apple event announcing new products in Cupertino, Calif., June 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an Apple event announcing new products in Cupertino, Calif., June 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Altman, who is in a legal dispute with rival Elon Musk, has said he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence in the incoming administration.

Trump is putting Musk, the world’s richest man, and Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is an outside advisory committee that will work with people inside the government to reduce spending and regulations.

Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging that the maker of ChatGPT betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk recently escalated the lawsuit by asking a federal judge to stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully.

——

The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

Puzzles Palace

1 minute read Monday, Jul. 27, 2026

To solve our puzzles, please subscribe with this special offer: |

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (The Canadian Press files)

Desperate Poilievre wants Canadians to believe the sky is falling when it’s just cloudy outside

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Preview

Desperate Poilievre wants Canadians to believe the sky is falling when it’s just cloudy outside

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 12:47 PM CDT

Pierre Poilievre has a problem.

Canadians just don’t seem to be paying much attention to him anymore.

So, naturally, the Conservative Opposition leader has decided to turn up the volume.

At a recent party caucus retreat in Penticton, B.C., Poilievre delivered the familiar message: Canada is in trouble, Canadians are hurting and the Liberal government is making everything worse.

Read
Yesterday at 12:47 PM CDT
Free Press Files Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton.

‘She was looking to destroy me’: convicted harasser faces new charges

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

‘She was looking to destroy me’: convicted harasser faces new charges

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

When Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton moved into the 55-plus apartment building on Stradbrook Avenue last year, she came across as “timid, soft-spoken and sensitive,” said building manager Tanya Owen.

Little did Owen know the meek-looking 58-year-old woman would soon turn her life and the lives of many of her tenants upside down and threaten her career and family.

“She was looking to destroy me for a simple tenant disagreement,” Owen said Thursday.

Court records show Ciochon-Newton was arrested earlier this month and charged with seven counts of criminal harassment, two counts of uttering threats and one count each of fraud, breaking and entering, attempting to obstruct justice, intimidation of a justice official, mischief and defamatory libel.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES President Donald Trump (left) shares a moment with Prime Minister Mark Carney last year. Even if Canada expands its trade with other countries — which it must do — the United States will almost certainly remain Canada’s most important trading partner.

Canada-U.S. trade relationship is broken, but the damage can — and will — be repaired

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Preview

Canada-U.S. trade relationship is broken, but the damage can — and will — be repaired

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

Canada needs to get serious about diversifying its trade beyond the United States. But at the same time, Canadians should expect relations with the U.S. to normalize after Donald Trump is no longer in the White House.

For generations, Canada-U.S. trade was considered almost a fact of geography. The two countries share the world’s longest undefended border, deeply integrated supply chains and a century of commercial relationships.

Canadian manufacturers depend on American customers. American manufacturers depend on Canadian suppliers. Energy, agriculture, automotive production and countless other industries operate across the border as though it barely exists.

That isn’t going to change dramatically, even in the midst of a bitter trade war unleashed by the U.S. president.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026
Agrippa

Give-and-take relationship of Roman leaders takes centre stage in Harris’s historical fiction

Reviewed by Kathryne Cardwell 4 minute read Preview

Give-and-take relationship of Roman leaders takes centre stage in Harris’s historical fiction

Reviewed by Kathryne Cardwell 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

British novelist Robert Harris’s latest work is a reflection on tyranny, corruption and betrayal among all-powerful political leaders.

You might be forgiven for thinking it’s a contemporary thriller — it’s actually historical fiction set in ancient Rome.

A former BBC journalist, Harris debuted as a novelist in 1992 with Fatherland, an alternative history where Nazi Germany won the Second World War.

Since then, the prolific author has become best-known for his works of historical fiction, especially his ancient Rome trilogy released from 2006-2015 and the novel Conclave, which was published in 2016 and was made into the film of the same name in 2024.

Read
2:01 AM CDT
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Premier Wab Kinew: “We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba.”

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Carol Sanders 8 minute read Preview

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Carol Sanders 8 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:48 AM CDT

Time’s up for the time change in Manitoba.

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour in November. The province has decided to permanently stay on daylight time after surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said in a news release Thursday.

Most of the 72,000 votes submitted in an online EngageMB survey — 92 per cent — said they would like to see the practice end. The survey asked if they preferred earlier sunrises in winter with standard time or the later sunsets in summer with daylight time. More than half of survey participants (58 per cent) indicated a preference to stay on permanent daylight time; 34 per cent voted to eliminate the time change but stay on standard time.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:48 AM CDT