Tech leaders congratulate Trump on winning 2024 election, pledge to work together on innovation

Tech leaders said they are ready to work with the new Trump administration, stating that American leadership in AI and the government’s focus on tech policies must be ensured. 

Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, presented a tech industry-friendly approach and courted personalities like Elon Musk to shore up support from the sector. AI companies, like Musk’s xAI, could greatly benefit from this more tech-focused administration, especially if the Biden administration’s flagship AI executive order is repealed. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman congratulated Trump, adding, “It is critically important that the US maintains its lead in developing AI with democratic values.” Greg Brockman, OpenAI president, echoed the same sentiment, pointing out that he believes it is with technology and AI that the country can “continue to lead the world and protect democratic values.”

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas also took to social media to offer his congratulations. 

“USA is the land of dreams, opportunity and competition. Look forward to working with the new government to improve how people search for information online with AI,” he said. 

Srinivas also touted Perplexity’s election information hub. According to Srinivas, around 10% of Perplexity usage on November 5 revolved around the elections. 

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, said the US is undergoing a “golden age of innovation.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is starting to roll out more AI features on its devices, also promised to work with the administration.

LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, an outspoken supporter of Kamala Harris, expressed the need to “get to the hard work of bridging divisions and ensuring that all Americans can enjoy safe, secure, and prosperous futures.”

Change in policies

The Biden administration has been vocal in seeking to support AI innovation with balancing privacy protections, culminating in the AI executive order in October last year. Since then, the government began looking into the potential dangers of open-weight models and asked companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to submit their unreleased AI models for safety evaluations. 

Harris, who ran against Trump instead of President Joe Biden, represented the US in international gatherings on AI safety and regulation. 

Tech companies faced scrutiny during the Biden administration as the government put forward several anti-trust cases. The Department of Justice, after winning its monopoly case against Google, put forward a potential plan to break up the tech giant. 

Game company Epic won against Google, accusing the search giant of monopoly. Epic’s lawsuit against Apple, however, failed. The DOJ filed a separate antitrust case against Apple in March. 

A more tech-friendly administration may mean a less litigious DOJ or Federal Trade Commission and fewer antitrust lawsuits, though Trump previously sued tech companies in his first term.