Anthropic and OpenAI CEOs condemn ICE violence, praise Trump

Summary

On a Monday night NBC News segment, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern over “some of the things we’ve seen in the last few days,” referring to the violence of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. Amodei focused on the importance of preserving democracy at home, both on NBC and in a post on X that specifically called out “the horror we’re seeing in Minnesota.” On NBC, he said he’s a believer in arming democracies to defend against autocratic countries, and that “we need to defend our own democratic values at home.” He added that Anthropic has no contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Meanwhile, in an internal Slack message to OpenAI employees that got leaked to the New York Times, Sam Altman said, “What’s happening with ICE is going too far.” “Part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach,” Altman wrote. “There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.” Tech workers, including employees of both companies, have been calling on their chiefs to call the White House and demand that ICE leave U.S. cities in the aftermath of Border Patrol agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. In an open letter, tech workers also urged their CEOs to cancel all company contracts with ICE and speak out publicly against ICE’s violence. Employees calling for CEOs to take action are encouraged and want more to join the ranks. “We’re glad to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemning the ICE murders,” the ICEout.tech organizers, whose identities remain unknown, told TechCrunch. “Now we need to hear from CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta, all of whom have remained silent despite calls all across the industry.” Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 While Amodei and Altman may be taking something of a stand – one in public, the other internally – both CEOs couched their statements with praise for President Trump, as we...