Amazon will donate $1mn in cash to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, the company confirmed on Thursday, as Big Tech companies seek to build relations with the US president-elect.
Amazon’s move comes after Facebook and Instagram parent Meta similarly donated $1mn to the fund. Amazon will also broadcast Trump’s inauguration on its Prime Video service.
Trump has long accused Big Tech companies of a litany of abuses, including censorship of conservative media. Following his election victory in November, Big Tech executives rushed to congratulate him, marking a contrast with their more cautious reception to his first term as they seek relief from pressure around antitrust, deals and artificial intelligence.
Amazon executive chair and founder Jeff Bezos is also planning to visit Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort next week, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Amazon’s donation.
Google and Apple chief executives Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook, respectively, were both quick to congratulate Trump after the election. Pichai was expected to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, The Information reported, and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dined with Trump there following his election win.
The moves come after Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, gave tens of millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign and subsequently installed himself as one of the president-elect’s closest allies. Trump has tapped Musk to lead a group examining broad reforms of government bureaucracy.
Apple’s hardware business is also potentially exposed to Trump’s sweeping tariff plans, which risk upsetting its critical China supply chains. During Trump’s first term, Cook managed to secure carve-outs for the company’s products.
Trump clashed with Amazon during his first term, during which he accused the online retail giant of putting companies out of business and criticised its tax policy.
In 2018 he also ordered a review into the US Postal Service’s pricing for package deliveries, accusing the post office of acting as Amazon’s “delivery boy”.
Under the Biden administration, Amazon has faced further pressure, with the US Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan and several states filing a landmark monopoly lawsuit against the company last year.
The FTC is also probing major cloud service providers, including Amazon, regarding their partnerships in generative AI.
Following the first assassination attempt on Trump over the summer, Bezos took to X to congratulate him on his “tremendous grace and courage under literal fire”.
Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, also blocked the newspaper from endorsing Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in October. He denied the agreement was part of a quid pro quo between Trump and his rocket company, Blue Origin, which competes with Musk’s SpaceX.
