Tech leaders including Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman congratulate Donald Trump on election

Bosses of Microsoft and Google all offer response to incoming president

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 07 November 2024 15:18 GMT
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Tech leaders from the world’s biggest companies have congratulated Donald Trump on his election as the incoming US president.

In the wake of this week’s election results, Trump received positive statements from the leaders of Apple, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and others.

Many suggested that the new president should engage with them on the topics of regulation and encouraging innovation.

In his previous time as president, Trump had an occasionally fractious relationship with the technology industry. While many gave their support, he received criticism from some leaders for both his technology policy as well as his political positions more broadly.

This time around, however, Trump received largely warm words from the industry’s leaders – even if they did not explicitly welcome the election result.

“Congratulations President Trump on your victory!” wrote Apple chief executive Tim Cook. “We look forward to engaging with you and your administration to help make sure the United States continues to lead with and be fueled by ingenuity, innovation, and creativity.”

Mr Cook’s statement on X/Twitter received a reply from Elon Musk, who as the owner of the site appears to have his own responses pushed above others. Mr Musk posted three American flags in reply.

As with Mr Cook, many offered general suggestions to Trump on how he might support the tech industry.

“congrats to President Trump. i wish for his huge success in the job,” wrote Sam Altman. “it is critically important that the US maintains its lead in developing AI with democratic values.”

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was one of few voices to explicitly voice concern about what Trump’s presidency might mean. He said that he had raised the alarm on “the anti-democratic actions Donald Trump took during his first Presidency, and has promised to take this next time”, pointing to threats to “punish political opponents” among other statements.

“Now we get to the hard work of bridging divisions and ensuring that all Americans can enjoy safe, secure, and prosperous futures. Onward.”

Mark Cuban, the tech billionaire who has been an outspoken critic of Mr Trump’s run for president this time around, sent his congratulations to the president and to supporter Elon Musk.

“Congrats [Donald Trump]. You won fair and square,” he wrote. Congrats to [Elon Musk] as well. Godspeed.”

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