During a Monday evening segment on NBC News, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei shared his alarm regarding “some of the things we’ve seen in the last few days,” alluding to violent incidents involving Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. Amodei emphasized the critical need to protect democracy domestically, both in his television appearance and in a post on X that highlighted “the horror we’re seeing in Minnesota.” On air, he stated his support for equipping democracies to resist autocratic regimes and stressed that “we need to defend our own democratic values at home.” He also clarified that Anthropic holds no contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In a separate internal Slack message to OpenAI staff that was later obtained by the New York Times, Sam Altman remarked, “What’s happening with ICE is going too far.” Altman wrote, “Part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach,” and noted, “There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.”

Technology sector employees, including staff from both firms, have been urging their leaders to contact the White House and demand that ICE withdraw from U.S. cities following the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by Border Patrol agents. An open letter from tech workers further called on CEOs to terminate all corporate contracts with ICE and to publicly denounce the agency’s violence. Those advocating for executive action are motivated and seeking broader support. “We’re glad to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemning the ICE murders,” stated the ICEout campaign. “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.”

Although Amodei and Altman have each adopted a stance—one publicly, the other internally—both executives tempered their remarks with praise for President Trump. Amodei commended Trump’s openness to letting Minnesota authorities conduct an independent probe into the shootings by federal agents, which gained attention after videos of Alex Pretti’s death spread online. (Whether that investigation proceeds is uncertain, though a rising number of Republicans have also started demanding an inquiry.)

In his message to employees, Altman said he was encouraged by Trump’s recent responses and expressed hope that the president, whom he called “a very strong leader,” would “rise to this moment and unite the country.” Altman reassured his team that OpenAI would “try to figure out how to actually do the right thing as best we can, engage with leaders and push for our values, and speak up clearly about it as needed.” To date, Altman has not publicly criticized the administration’s immigration policies or its deployment of Border Patrol agents in American cities.

It is worth noting that the Trump administration’s AI-focused policies have contributed to rapid expansion at companies like OpenAI and Anthropic over the past year. OpenAI has raised at least $40 billion and is discussing an additional $100 billion at an $830 billion valuation, while Anthropic has secured $19 billion and is in talks for another $25 billion at a $350 billion valuation.

Nevertheless, Altman’s complimentary words toward Trump mark a shift from his earlier position. Ahead of Trump’s first term in 2016, Altman posted on his personal blog: “[Trump] is not merely irresponsible. He is irresponsible in the way dictators are…To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it’s chilling to watch Trump in action.” At the time, he labeled Trump a “demagogic hate-monger” who promotes the false promise to “Make America Great by keeping us safe from outsiders” to divert attention from having “no serious plan for how to restore economic growth.” Altman recognized the risk in publishing his post and concluded with a quote often attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” He added, “This would be a good time for us all—even Republicans, especially Republican politicians who previously endorsed Trump—to start speaking up.”

Amodei, meanwhile, appeared more vocal in his criticism of Trump’s decision to permit Nvidia to sell AI chips to China, describing the move as “crazy” during the World Economic Forum last week and comparing it to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea and [bragging that] Boeing made the casings.”

Whether these CEOs will fully meet the expectations of some within their workforce is still unclear. Even so, given the significant stakes for their companies, their internal and measured criticisms are themselves noteworthy.