On a Monday night time NBC News phase, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern over “some of the things we’ve seen in the last few days,” referring to the violence of Border Patrol brokers in Minneapolis.
Amodei centered on the significance of preserving democracy at residence, each on NBC and in a put up on X that particularly known as out “the horror we’re seeing in Minnesota.” On NBC, he stated he’s a believer in arming democracies to defend towards autocratic nations, and that “we need to defend our own democratic values at home.” He added that Anthropic has no contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Meanwhile, in an inner Slack message to OpenAI workers that obtained leaked to The New York Times, Sam Altman stated, “What’s happening with ICE is going too far.”
“Part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach,” Altman wrote. “There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook additionally penned an e mail to his employees, which was leaked to Bloomberg, saying he was “heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis.”
Tech employees, together with workers of each firms, have been calling on their chiefs to name the White House and demand that ICE go away U.S. cities within the aftermath of Border Patrol brokers killing two U.S. residents in Minneapolis. In an open letter, tech employees additionally urged their CEOs to cancel all firm contracts with ICE and communicate out publicly towards ICE’s violence.
Employees calling for CEOs to take motion are inspired and need extra to affix the ranks.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
“We’re glad to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemning the ICE murders,” the ICEout.tech organizers, whose identities stay unknown, advised TechCrunch (earlier than Cook’s e mail was leaked). “Now we need to hear from CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, all of whom have remained silent despite calls all across the industry.”
While Amodei, Altman, and Cook could also be taking one thing of a stand — one in public, the opposite two internally — all three CEOs couched their statements with praise for Trump, as nicely.
Cook stated in his e mail that he had a “good conversation” with President Trump and appreciates “his openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all.” Apple workers have been reportedly offended that Cook had attended an unique screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump hours after ICE shot and killed U.S. citizen Alex Pretti.
Amodei applauded Trump’s consideration to permit Minnesota authorities to conduct an unbiased investigation into the shootings by federal brokers after a number of movies of Pretti’s loss of life circulated on-line. It stays to be seen if that investigation will occur, however a rising variety of Republicans have begun to name for an investigation, as nicely. (Amodei’s sister and Anthropic’s president Daniela Amodei posted on LinkedIn that she was “horrified and sad to see what has happened in Minnesota. “What we’ve been witnessing over the past days is not what America stands for,” she wrote.)
In Altman’s message to his employees he additionally stated he was inspired by Trump’s more moderen responses and stated he hopes the president, “a very strong leader,” will “rise to this moment and unite the country.”
Altman assured them that OpenAI would “try 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.” Altman has but to publicly criticize the administration’s immigration agenda, or how it’s deploying Border Patrol brokers into American cities.
J.J. Colao, founding father of PR agency Haymaker Group and one of many signatories on ICEout.tech’s letter, known as Altman out for making an attempt to “have it both ways” by calling Trump a robust chief, “as if the president bears no responsibility for ICE’s actions.” He added: “On net, I think his statement is helpful, but the performative tribute to the president does a lot to diminish it.”
Of course, the Trump administration’s present AI-forward insurance policies have helped gas explosive development at firms like OpenAI and Anthropic over the previous 12 months; OpenAI raised at the least $40 billion and is in talks to lift one other $100 billion at an $830 billion valuation, and Anthropic has raised $19 billion and is in talks to lift one other $25 billion at a $350 billion valuation.
Still, such phrases of praise for Trump is an about-face for Altman. In the lead as much as Trump’s first time period in 2016, Altman posted the next to his personal weblog:
“[Trump] is not merely irresponsible. He is irresponsible in the way dictators are…To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it’s chilling to watch Trump in action.”
At that point, he known as Trump a “demagogic hate-monger” who dangles the lie that he’ll “Make America Great by keeping us safe from outsiders” to distract from the truth that he really has “no serious plan for how to restore economic growth.” Altman acknowledged that he took some danger by writing his put up, and ended on a quote that has been attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
“This would be a good time for us all—even Republicans, especially Republican politicians who previously endorsed Trump—to start speaking up,” he wrote.
And Amodei additionally seemed to be extra keen about his opposition to Trump permitting Nvidia to promote AI chips to China, calling the choice “crazy” final week through the World Economic Forum and likening it to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea and [bragging that] Boeing made the casings.”
Whether these CEOs are doing every part that some amongst their workforce need them to do stays to be seen. Still, given what’s at stake for his or her firms, even inner and mild-mannered critiques are notable.
Spokespeople from Anthropic and OpenAI confirmed that neither firm has contracts with ICE, however didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s requests for extra info. TechCrunch has reached out to Apple.
This story has been up to date with remark from J.J. Colao and to incorporate Tim Cook’s leaked e mail.
Got a delicate tip or confidential paperwork? We’re reporting on the interior workings of the AI business — from the businesses shaping its future to the folks impacted by their selections. Reach out to Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com or Russell Brandom at russell.brandom@techcrunch.com. For safe communication, you possibly can contact them through Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and russellbrandom.49.
