Google and Microsoft donate $1m each to Trump’s inaugural fund

Google and Microsoft have donated $1m each to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, following in the footsteps of other major companies including Amazon, Meta, OpenAI and Uber.

“Google is pleased to support the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage. We’re also donating to the inaugural committee,” Karan Bhatia, Google’s global head of government affairs and public policy, confirmed in a statement to the Guardian on Thursday.

The tech giant made the donation on Monday, CNBC

reported

. A Google spokesperson José Castaneda told the outlet that the company has donated to previous inauguration funds and previously hosted livestreams of inauguration ceremonies.

A Microsoft spokesperson

confirmed

the company’s donation to Trump’s inaugural fund in a statement to Bloomberg on Thursday. The company donated $500,000 each to Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, Bloomberg reports.

A slew of other major companies made hefty donations to Trump’s inauguration fund in the last month; the fund will cover functions and activities connected with the ceremony. Amazon, Meta and OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman have all made

donations

of $1m, as well as

Toyota

and

Uber

.

The contributions, which have helped Trump’s inaugural committee raise a

record

$170m in donations, appear to be an attempt by tech giants to curry good favor with Trump ahead of his second term. By

comparison

, Joe Biden’s inauguration raised $63m in 2021 while Barack Obama’s inaugurations raised $53m in 2009 and $42m in 2013.

Trump has had a fraught relationship over the years with major tech oligarchs and their firms who he has accused of liberal bias and politically-motivated content suppression. In September, Trump

threatened

to order the justice department to seek criminal charges against Google over claims that it elevated negative stories about him during his presidential campaign.

Yet, with his inauguration around the corner, both Trump and various tech giants have experienced a tonal shift – a noticeable departure from their criticisms of Trump during his involvement in January 6.

After Trump’s win in November, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai – who previously

called

the January 6 riots “the antithesis of democracy” – congratulated Trump for his “decisive victory”.

Then, during a press conference last month, Trump

said

: “The first time everybody was fighting me… This time everyone wants to be my friend.”

Elsewhere in the tech world this week, Meta’s chief Mark Zuckerberg – who in 2021

said

Trump “should be responsible for his words” –

announced

that the company will be getting rid of fact checkers and “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” across its platforms.

Zuckerberg said Meta will also be recommending more political content across its platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Speaking to

CNBC last December about major tech executives, Brendan Glavin, director of research for OpenSecrets, a Washington DC-based money-in-politics nonprofit, said Trump’s inauguration poses a “great opportunity for them to curry favor with the incoming administration”.

“None of these people, they don’t want to be Trump’s punching bag for four years,” he added.