Anthropic and OpenAI officials condemn ICE attacks, respect Trump

Monday night Part of NBC NewsAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern about “some of the things we’ve seen in the last few days,” referring to violence by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.

Amodei focused on the importance of preserving democracy at home, on NBC and in a post on X which said “the horrors we’re seeing in Minnesota.” On NBC, he said he believes in strengthening democracy to protect independent nations, and that “we must protect our democratic values ​​at home.” He added that Anthropic does not have contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Meanwhile, in an internal Slack message to OpenAI employees they discovered was revealed in the New York TimesSam Altman said, “What’s going on with ICE is going too far.”

Altman wrote: “Part of the patriotism is the American responsibility to return the betrayal.” “There’s a big difference between chasing violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to draw a clear distinction.”

Technical staff, including employees of both companies, have been to call their chiefs calling on the White House to order ICE out of US cities after Border Patrol agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis. In an open letter, tech workers also urged their CEOs to end all corporate contracts with ICE and speak out against ICE violence.

Employees who are calling on CEOs to take action are motivated and want more to join.

“We are happy to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemning the execution of ICE,” the organizers of ICEout.tech, who are not identified, told TechCrunch. “Now we have to hear from the CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta, all of whom have remained silent despite the company-wide calls.”

While Amodei and Altman may be taking sides — one publicly, the other internally — both CEOs praised their statements and praised President Trump.

Amodei praised Trump’s decision to allow Minnesota officials to act independent research shooting by government agents after several videos of the death of Alex Pretti were published on the Internet. (It remains to be seen if this research will be done, but a more and more Republicans are starting to call for it research, as well.)

In Altman’s message to his staff, he said he was encouraged by Trump’s recent responses and said he hoped the president, “a very strong leader,” “will rise to the occasion and unite the country.”

Altman assured them that OpenAI “will try to figure out how to do the right thing as best as we can, connect with leaders and stick to what we stand for, and speak clearly when needed.” Altman has never publicly criticized the administration, or the way the Border Patrol is being deployed in American cities.

JJ Colao, founder of the PR firm Haymaker Group and one of the signatories of the ICEout.tech letter, called on Altman to try to “have both ways” by calling Trump a strong leader, “if the president is not responsible for the actions of ICE.” He added: “On the net, I think his words are useful, but the President’s offer does a lot to reduce it.”

Of course, the recent AI-forward policies of the Trump administration have helped fuel growth in companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Last year, OpenAI raised at least $40 billion and is looking to raise another. $100 billion at a cost of $830 billionand Anthropic raised $19 billion and is in talks to bring another one $25 billion at a cost of $350 billion.

However, Trump’s words of praise are about Altman’s face. At the beginning of Trump’s first term in 2016, Altman wrote the following to his your blog:

“(Trump) isn’t just irresponsible. He’s as reckless as dictators are… For anyone who knows the history of Germany in the 1930s, it’s great to see Trump in action.”

At the time, he called Trump a “hater of the people” who is pushing the lie that “He’s going to make America Great by protecting us from foreigners” to distract from the fact that he “doesn’t have a big plan on how to restore economic growth.” Altman admitted that he took a risk in writing what he wrote, and concluded with a quote from Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

“Now would be a good time for all of us — even Republicans, especially Republicans who have previously endorsed Trump — to start speaking up,” he wrote.

And Amodei also appeared to be passionate about his opposition to Trump allowing Nvidia to sell AI chips in China, calling the decision “crazy” last week at the World Economic Forum compared it to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea and (boasting that) Boeing made the casings.”

Whether these CEOs are doing everything that some of their employees want them to do is unclear. However, depending on what is at stake for their companies, even internal and mild criticism is common.

TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic and OpenAI for comment.

This article has been edited by JJ Colao.

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