On a Monday night about NBC NewsAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern about “some of the things we have seen in the last few days,” referring to the violence of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.

Amodei stressed the importance of preserving democracy at home, on NBC and on a post on X which was specifically called “the horror we saw in Minnesota.” On NBC, he said he is a believer in arming democracies to defend against autocratic countries, and that “we must defend our own democratic values ​​at home.” He added that Anthropic does not have a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Meanwhile, in an internal Slack message to OpenAI employees who got leaked to The New York TimesSam Altman said, “What happened to ICE is too far.”

“Part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach,” Altman wrote. “There’s a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to bridge the gap.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook also wrote an email to his staff, which is leaked to Bloombergsaying he was “saddened by the events in Minneapolis.”

Tech workers, including employees of both companies, have been called their leaders to call the White House and demand that ICE leave US cities after Border Patrol agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis. In an open letter, the tech workers also urged their CEOs to cancel all company contracts with ICE and speak out publicly against ICE violence.

Employees calling for CEOs to act are encouraged and want to join the ranks even more.

“We’re happy to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemn the ICE killings,” the organizers of ICEout.tech, whose identities remain anonymous, told TechCrunch (before Cook’s email was leaked). “Now we need to hear from the CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, all of whom have remained silent despite calls across the industry.”

While Amodei, Altman, and Cook may have a stance — one public, the other two internal — all three CEOs also expressed their statements with praise for Trump, as well.

Cook said in his email that he had a “great conversation” with President Trump and appreciated “his openness to engage on issues that are important to all of us.” Apple employees are reported Cook angrily attended an exclusive screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump hours after ICE shot and killed US citizen Alex Pretti.

Amodei praised Trump’s consideration of allowing Minnesota authorities to conduct a independent investigation of the shooting by federal agents after several videos of Pretti’s death circulated online. It remains to be seen if such an investigation will take place, but a more and more Republicans are starting to call an investigation, as well. (Amodei’s sister and Anthropic president Daniela Amodei posted on LinkedIn that he is “horrified and saddened to see what is happening in Minnesota. “What we have witnessed in the last few days is not what America stands for,” he wrote.)

In Altman’s message to his staff, he also said he was encouraged by Trump’s latest responses and said he hopes the president, “a very strong leader,” “stands up today and brings this country together.”

Altman assured them that OpenAI “will try to figure out how to do the right thing as much as we can, engage with leaders and push our values, and speak clearly about it when necessary.” Altman has never publicly criticized the administration’s immigration agenda, or how Border Patrol agents are deployed in American cities.

JJ Colao, the founder of the PR firm Haymaker Group and one of the signatories of the ICEout.tech letter, called out Altman for trying to “have it both ways” by calling Trump a strong leader, “saying the president has no responsibility for the actions of ICE.” He added: “On the net, I think his statement was helpful, but the president’s performative tribute did a lot to diminish it.”

Of course, the Trump administration’s current AI-forward policies have helped fuel the explosive growth of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic over the past year; OpenAI has raised at least $40 billion and is in talks to raise another $100 billion at an $830 billion valuationand Anthropic has raised $19 billion and is in talks to raise another $25 billion at a $350 billion valuation.

However, such words of praise for Trump are an about-face for Altman. In the lead up to Trump’s first term in 2016, Altman posted the following of his own blog:

“(Trump) isn’t just irresponsible. He’s irresponsible the way dictators are … To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it’s chilling to see Trump in action.”

At the time, he called Trump a “demagogic hate-monger” who dangled the lie that “He’s going to make America Great by keeping us safe from outsiders” to distract from the fact that he actually “doesn’t have a serious plan on how to restore economic growth.” Altman acknowledged that he took some risks by writing his post, and concluded with a quote attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is good men doing nothing.”

“This is a good time for all of us—even Republicans, especially Republican politicians who once endorsed Trump—to start speaking out,” he wrote.

And Amodei also appeared more passionate about his opposition to Trump allowing Nvidia to sell its AI chips to China, called the decision “crazy” last week during the World Economic Forum and likened it to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea and (boasting that) Boeing makes the casings.”

Whether these CEOs are doing everything some of their workers want them to do remains to be seen. However, what is at stake for their companies, even internal and mild criticisms are rare.

Spokespeople from Anthropic and OpenAI confirmed that neither company has a contract with ICE, but did not respond to TechCrunch’s requests for more information. TechCrunch reached out to Apple.

This story has been updated with a comment from JJ Colao and include Tim Cook’s leaked email.

Have a sensitive tip or confidential documents? We report on the inside of the AI ​​industry – from the companies shaping its future to the people affected by their decisions. Help Rebecca Bellan to [email protected] or Russell Brandom on [email protected]. For secure communication, you can contact them via Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and russellbrandom.49.