Trump presidency: Tech moguls Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman both seem rather optimistic about the coming Donald Trump presidency. The Amazon founder agreed with Trump’s stance on regulations in the country, while Altman supported fellow AI enthusiast Elon Musk’s proposals.
Both Bezos and Altman spoke at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York City on December 4.
‘Optimistic’ Says Bezos
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around. He (Trump) seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I’m going to help him. We do have too many regulations in this country,” Bezos said during his interview, according to an AP report.
Notably, in an unprecedented move in October, Bezos prohibited The Washington Post (which he owns) from publishing an editorial endorsing either presidential candidate. The move was protested by staff and editors who resigned and readers who cancelled their subscription to the publication. Bezos defended the decision as unbiased, and said that American people had lost faith in the media.
Speaking at the event, he said he would try to talk Trump “out of the idea” that the press is the enemy, as per the report. “You’ve (journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin) probably grown in the last eight years. He has, too. This is not the case. The press is not the enemy,” Bezos said.
Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE’ Role Looms
On Musk, Bezos said he does not expect the billionaire to use his place in the Trump administration to hurt business competitors.
Altman also echoed this belief, AFP reported, saying that the OpenAI CEO said Musk would not use his proximity to Trump to harm business rivals, calling such actions “profoundly un-American.”
“I may turn out to be wrong, but I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing. It would be profoundly un-American to use political power to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses. Even if there are lots of things not to like about him… it would go so deeply against the values I believe he holds very dear to himself that I’m not that worried about it,” Altman said.
Background
Musk is set to co-head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Vivek Ramaswamy in the coming Trump administration. Bezos (the world’s second richest person) and Musk (the world’s richest person), are particular rivals in the space exploration field, with Blue Origin vs SpaceX, while Altman and Musk compete in the artificial intelligence space with OpenAI and xAI.
Meanwhile, other interviews with Ross Sorkin on stage at the DealBook summit include former US President Bill Clinton and the Duke of Sussex Prince Harry, among others.
(With inputs from AP and AFP)