- Sam Altman says there's been a shift in Silicon Valley's relationship with Washington since Donald Trump took office. Altman, along with several other major tech leaders, has embraced the new administration and its tech-friendly policies.
Sam Altman says Silicon Valley has had a "vibe shift" since Donald Trump took office.
Speaking to The Times Tech Podcast ahead of the Paris AI Action Summit, the OpenAI CEO said the new administration is a "breath of fresh air" for the tech industry, calling out the previous Biden administration for being unfriendly to tech and business.
Silicon Valley has largely welcomed Trump's low-regulation approach to the tech sector. Altman himself personally donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund and teamed up with the president to announce a flashy $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate.
The OpenAI boss said there was "huge excitement" in the U.S. tech industry that they could "build a lot in the U.S. now."
"Maybe we can go figure out how to get good at semiconductor fab again, get good at robotic factories, to make data centers again, get good at building new energy," he said.
Altman is part of a group of tech leaders who have significantly softened their stance on Trump.
Nine years ago, Altman publicly criticized Trump for promoting "casual racism, misogyny, and conspiracy theories."
However, last month, Altman officially declared he had "changed his perspective" on the U.S. president.
In a post on X, he said: “Watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him. I wish I had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell into the npc [non-playable character] trap. I’m not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!”
Representatives for Altman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
Silicon Valley's shift to the right
The tech sector has traditionally leaned left, but years of frustration around the Democrats' approach to the industry appear to have prompted some major figures to switch allegiances.
Many leading CEOs, including Altman, have publicly embraced Trump and his VP, JD Vance, a former Silicon Valley VC.
The U.S. president was flanked by some of the industry's most influential people in the industry during his January inauguration.
Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, and Sam Altman appeared alongside "first buddy" Elon Musk.
In some cases, the tech sector's shift to the right has gone beyond politics and begun to infiltrate some of the leading tech companies' culture and products—most notably at Meta, where Zuckerberg has announced plans to scrap third-party fact-checkers, scale back DEI initiatives, and reintroduce "masculine energy."
The reforms have been largely seen as an attempt to improve ties with the Trump administration.
Tech leaders have also made appearances inside the White House.
Musk, one of Trump's main cheerleaders during his presidential campaign, has been given a major role in the new administration's mission to cut costs and revamp the federal government.
The Tesla CEO's Department of Government Eficiency (DOGE) team has been tearing through government agencies and, in some cases, gaining access to classified information.
Altman has also been seen in the White House. The CEO met with Trump to announce the OpenAI- and SoftBank-backed Stargate, an AI infrastructure project, on Trump's first full day in office.
