Sam Altman is the latest CEO to reportedly speak out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis, after a second fatal shooting in the city over the weekend.
“I love the U.S. And its values of democracy and freedom and will be supportive of the country however I can; OpenAI will too,” he wrote in an internal Slack message to OpenAI employees, according to a transcript obtained by The New York Times. “But part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach. What’s happening with ICE is going too far.”
Altman’s apparent message came after Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. Citizen and intensive care unit nurse, was shot and killed by immigration agents on Saturday. Earlier this month, an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, who described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.”
Altman’s messages reportedly received hundreds of positive responses, including heart and thank you emojis. Last week, hundreds of tech workers, including several OpenAI employees, signed a petition urging CEOs to speak out against ICE’s violence, cancel contracts with the agency, and call the White House to “demand that ICE leave our cities.”
Altman did not mention Pretti or Good by name, but alluded to the violence against U.S. Citizens.
“There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right,” Altman wrote.
But in the same breath, the OpenAI CEO also praised President Donald Trump’s leadership.
“President Trump is a very strong leader, and I hope he will rise to this moment and unite the country,” he continued. “I am encouraged by the last few hours of response and hope to see trust rebuilt with transparent investigations.”
The president changed his tone on Monday after accusing Democratic leaders in Minnesota of “inciting insurrection” over the weekend. Trump said he had productive conversations with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino and some federal agents were expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, and Trump announced that “Border Czar” Tom Homan, who previously worked for the Obama administration, will be going to Minneapolis this week.
The New York Times reported Altman said in the replies to his message he spoke with Trump administration officials on Monday, like he did in the fall, to try to persuade the president to not conduct a large immigration enforcement operation in San Francisco, where OpenAI is headquartered.
Trump’s relationship with Big Tech
Over the past year, Altman and other tech leaders have built relationships with the Trump administration and embraced his low-regulation approach to the industry. In January 2025, Altman said he had “changed his perspective” on Trump and has credited the president for a “vibe shift” between Washington and Silicon Valley.
The tech industry has historically leaned left, but many leaders, including Altman, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have formed relationships with Trump since day 1 of his second administration and attended his inauguration.
“Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president,” Altman said at a September dinner hosted by Trump in the White House. “It’s a very refreshing change.”
Still, Altman told employees in the recent Slack message OpenAI plans to “stick to our convictions” and not “not get blown around by changing fashions too much.”
“We didn’t become super woke when that was popular, we didn’t start talking about masculine corporate energy when that was popular, and we are not going to make a lot of performative statements now about safety or politics or anything else,” Altman wrote, an indirect jab at Zuckerberg, who has said most companies need more “masculine energy.”
