{"id":439318,"date":"2026-01-28T20:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/439318\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T20:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:02:14","slug":"anthropic-apple-openai-ceos-condemn-ice-violence-praise-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/439318\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic, Apple, OpenAI CEOs condemn ICE violence, praise Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a Monday night NBC News segment<\/a>, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern over \u201csome of the things we\u2019ve seen in the last few days,\u201d referring to the violence of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Amodei focused on the importance of preserving democracy at home, both on NBC and in a post on X <\/a>that specifically called out \u201cthe horror we\u2019re seeing in Minnesota.\u201d On NBC, he said he\u2019s a believer in arming democracies to defend against autocratic countries, and that \u201cwe need to defend our own democratic values at home.\u201d He added that Anthropic has no contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in an internal Slack message to OpenAI employees that got leaked to The New York Times<\/a>, Sam Altman said, \u201cWhat\u2019s happening with ICE is going too far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach,\u201d Altman wrote. \u201cThere is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what\u2019s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple CEO Tim Cook also penned an email to his staff, which was leaked to Bloomberg<\/a>, saying he was \u201cheartbroken by the events in Minneapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech workers, including employees of both companies, have been calling on their chiefs<\/a> to call the White House and demand that ICE leave U.S. cities in the aftermath of Border Patrol agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. In an open letter, tech workers also urged their CEOs to cancel all company contracts with ICE and speak out publicly against ICE\u2019s violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Employees calling for CEOs to take action are encouraged and want more to join the ranks.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re glad to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemning the ICE murders,\u201d the ICEout.tech organizers, whose identities remain unknown, told TechCrunch (before Cook\u2019s email was leaked). \u201cNow we need to hear from CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, all of whom have remained silent despite calls all across the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Amodei, Altman, and Cook may be taking something of a stand \u2014 one in public, the other two internally \u2014 all three CEOs couched their statements with praise for Trump, as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cook said in his email that he had a \u201cgood conversation\u201d with President Trump and appreciates \u201chis openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all.\u201d Apple employees were reportedly angry that Cook had attended<\/a> an exclusive screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump hours after ICE shot and killed U.S. citizen Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n

Amodei applauded Trump\u2019s consideration to allow Minnesota authorities to conduct an independent investigation<\/a> into the shootings by federal agents after multiple videos of Pretti\u2019s death\u00a0circulated online. It remains to be seen if that investigation will happen, but a growing number of Republicans have begun to call for<\/a> an investigation, as well.\u00a0(Amodei\u2019s sister and Anthropic\u2019s president Daniela Amodei posted on LinkedIn<\/a> that she was \u201chorrified and sad to see what has happened in Minnesota\u2026What we\u2019ve been witnessing over the past days is not what America stands for,\u201d she wrote.)<\/p>\n

In Altman\u2019s message to his staff he also said he was encouraged by Trump\u2019s more recent responses and said he hopes the president, \u201ca very strong leader,\u201d will \u201crise to this moment and unite the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altman assured them that OpenAI would \u201ctry to figure out how to actually do the right thing as best we can, engage with leaders and push for our values, and speak up clearly about it as needed.\u201d Altman has yet to publicly criticize the administration\u2019s immigration agenda, or how it is deploying Border Patrol agents into American cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

J.J. Colao, founder of PR firm Haymaker Group and one of the signatories on ICEout.tech\u2019s letter, called Altman out for trying to \u201chave it both ways\u201d by calling Trump a strong leader, \u201cas if the president bears no responsibility for ICE\u2019s actions.\u201d He added: \u201cOn net, I think his statement is helpful, but the performative tribute to the president does a lot to diminish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the Trump administration\u2019s current AI-forward policies have helped fuel explosive growth at companies like OpenAI and Anthropic over the past year; OpenAI raised at least $40 billion and is in talks to raise another $100 billion at an $830 billion valuation<\/a>, and Anthropic has raised $19 billion and is in talks to raise another $25 billion at a $350 billion valuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, such words of praise for Trump is an about-face for Altman. In the lead up to Trump\u2019s first term in 2016, Altman posted the following to his own blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201c[Trump] is not merely irresponsible. He is irresponsible in the way dictators are\u2026To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it\u2019s chilling to watch Trump in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that time, he called Trump a \u201cdemagogic hate-monger\u201d who dangles the lie that he will \u201cMake America Great by keeping us safe from outsiders\u201d to distract from the fact that he actually has \u201cno serious plan for how to restore economic growth.\u201d Altman acknowledged that he took some risk by writing his post, and ended on a quote that has been attributed to Edmund Burke: \u201cThe only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be a good time for us all\u2014even Republicans, especially Republican politicians who previously endorsed Trump\u2014to start speaking up,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

And Amodei also appeared to be more passionate about his opposition to Trump allowing Nvidia to sell AI chips to China, calling the decision \u201ccrazy\u201d<\/a> last week during the World Economic Forum and likening it to \u201cselling nuclear weapons to North Korea and [bragging that] Boeing made the casings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether these CEOs are doing everything that some among their workforce want them to do remains to be seen. Still, given what\u2019s at stake for their companies, even internal and mild-mannered critiques are notable.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople from Anthropic and OpenAI confirmed that neither company has contracts with ICE, but did not respond to TechCrunch\u2019s requests for more information. TechCrunch has reached out to Apple.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated with comment from J.J. Colao and to include Tim Cook\u2019s leaked email.<\/p>\n

Got a sensitive tip or confidential documents? We\u2019re reporting on the inner workings of the AI industry \u2014 from the companies shaping its future to the people impacted by their decisions. Reach out to Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com<\/a> or Russell Brandom at russell.brandom@techcrunch.com<\/a>. For secure communication, you can contact them via Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and russellbrandom.49.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a Monday night NBC News segment, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern over \u201csome of the things…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,1930,276,277,49,48,11021,278,2747,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-439318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-anthropic","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-dario-amodei","15":"tag-openai","16":"tag-sam-altman","17":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}