By Annie Bang and Alicia Tang | Bloomberg
OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman joined a growing chorus of Silicon Valley leaders expressing outrage in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, aligning with tech industry workers who’ve urged CEOs to take a stronger stand against the violent immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
“What’s happening with ICE is going too far,” Altman wrote in a note Monday shared with all employees, according to a person familiar with the matter. “There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.”
With his remarks, Altman became the latest tech leader to address the politically charged issue in recent days.
Others who’ve objected to the violence in Minnesota include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, former Meta Platforms’ AI chief scientist Yann LeCun and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
“Murderers,” wrote LeCun, who is based in Paris, linking to video footage of Pretti’s death on Sunday.
Ohanian wrote, “ICE shot a man in the back while he was restrained. We need our leaders to lead right now — deescalate.”
Khosla decried “Macho ICE vigilantes running amuck empowered by a conscience-less administration.”
Un cartel de Alex Pretti, de 37 años, quien fue asesinado a tiros por un agente de la Patrulla Fronteriza, se muestra durante una vigilia el sábado 24 de enero de 2026 en Minneapolis. (Foto AP/Adam Gray)In a post on X Monday, Amodei pointed to a recently published essay on artificial intelligence, adding, “Given the horror we’re seeing in Minnesota, its emphasis on the importance of preserving democratic values and rights at home is particularly relevant.”
The tech executives joined a wider group of hundreds of engineers and other technology workers who have signed an open letter at ICEout.tech, condemning the violence in Minnesota and calling for industry leaders to “join us in demanding ICE out of all of our cities.”
With the exception of Amodei, chief executives of America’s largest tech companies have remained largely silent as outcry grows over the deadly shootings in Minneapolis of Pretti on Saturday and of Renee Good on Jan. 7. Speaking out against Trump policies carries risks for global businesses over which the administration has influence.
Executives including Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai have not weighed in publicly. Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff posted about the topic Monday, but did so without taking direct aim at the administration. In a post on X on Monday, Benioff posted a Minnesota flag emblazoned with a heart, along with a message calling for “Peace to All.”
Outside of the CEO positions, some tech executives have been more vocal. Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google’s DeepMind, wrote of Pretti’s killing, “Every person regardless of political affiliation should be denouncing this.”
An OpenAI robotics staffer posted about US constitutional rights. And Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah said on X he usually avoids talking about politics, “so the bar is very high for me to comment. But recent events — a federal agent killing an ICU nurse for seemingly no reason and with no provocation – shock the conscience.”
Some in the industry have posted on social media criticizing the lack of visible pushback from tech CEOs. The absence of public statements was highlighted by the presence of Cook and Amazon Inc. CEO Andy Jassy at a Washington screening of “Melania,” a documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump, according to the Hollywood Reporter and other publications.
In the first year since Trump’s return to office, the biggest tech and AI companies spent $109 million on lobbying, topping $100 million for the first time, according to a Bloomberg News review of public disclosures. Many tech ventures added Trump-friendly advocates to their lobbying ranks in the nation’s capital.
Still, tech leaders have mostly refrained from publicly backing the administration’s mass-deportation efforts. One exception is Elon Musk, who has posted in support of immigration agents on his social media network X.
In the open letter from tech workers, they urged tech companies to call the White House, cancel contracts with immigration enforcement and to speak out publicly against violence. “We know our industry leaders have leverage: In October, they persuaded Trump to call off a planned ICE surge in San Francisco, and big tech CEOS are in the White House tonight. Now they need to go further.”
With assistance from Brody Ford, Shirin Ghaffary and Caroline Hyde at Bloomberg
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