OpenAI co-founder and longtime chairman Greg Brockman not only made an extraordinary donation to the main pro-Trump super PAC — together, he and his wife Anna’s September 2025 donation matched the largest donation of them all, totaling $25 million to “MAGA Inc.,” according to a recent filing. The Brockmans’ donation was about one-quarter of a six-month fundraising cycle.
It’s the latest in a series of examples of tech executives aligning themselves with President Trump’s administration, coming as the administration is aggressively pushing to support the AI industry and rejecting state-level regulations that companies like OpenAI have largely opposed. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brockman’s multimillion-dollar donation is not the only example of large-scale spending under his own name that is focused on potentially derailing AI industry regulation. The pro-AI super PAC “Leading the Future”, of which Brockman is a key supporter, has purchased ads targeting New York State Assemblyman Alex Borres – a cosponsor of New York’s RAISE Act, which was weakened at the last minute after coordinated lobbying efforts.
Although news of the Brockmans’ donation first broke earlier this month, it has recently resurfaced in online discussion following the death of Alex Pretty in Minneapolis, where federal officers shot two men during an anti-immigrant crackdown. Tech workers from across the industry, including several OpenAI employees, have signed a letter calling on their CEO to cancel all contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and publicly condemn the department’s actions. “When Trump threatened to send the National Guard to San Francisco in October, tech industry leaders called the White House,” the petition’s website says. “It worked: Trump backed down. Today we’re calling on our CEOs to pick up the phone again.”
However, since Trump’s inauguration, one tech leader after another has donated to his inauguration fund, come to Mar-a-Lago to meet him, or attended a White House dinner with him. In return, they have got an administration eager to roll back consumer protections and tech regulation. Trump’s AI Action Plan revives a failed Republican effort to prevent states from passing AI regulations, much to the delight of tech leaders. The new provision states that “AI is too important to suppress bureaucracy at this early stage” and that the government “should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds,” though it should not “interfere with states’ rights to pass prudential laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation.” Among the targets of the moratorium is SB 53, the landmark AI transparency bill California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September, while several tech companies, including OpenAI, were lobbying against it.
In 2019, Brockman co-authored a blog post highlighting how difficult it is to “change powerful systems… once deployed”, and that “it is important to address the security and policy risks of AGI before it is built.” Six years later, the tone of his post has changed, highlighting the importance of “perspective.”[ing] “Emerging technology with a growth-centric mindset.” In a New Year’s Eve post on He said it was “great to see the willingness of the President and his administration to engage directly with the AI community.”
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