Sam Altman and Other CEOs Criticize ICE Actions After Killings in Minnesota

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman told employees that “what’s happening with ICE is going too far” after federal agents killed two Americans in Minnesota, and other corporate leaders have begun weighing in on the events. Altman’s full internal Slack message, obtained by DealBook, said he loved the U.S.

and its values but that Americans have a duty to push back against overreach, drawing a distinction “between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now.” He said he hoped President Trump would “rise to this moment” and noted he had spent time speaking with White House officials; his post drew hundreds of supportive responses inside OpenAI.

Other executives have commented publicly: Target’s incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke called the shootings “incredibly painful” in a video to employees, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei described the events as a “horror.” Tensions have appeared across Silicon Valley — Wired reported that some Palantir employees questioned the company’s work with ICE after the killing of Alex Pretti, while an online public letter called ICEout.tech has urged tech firms to cancel ICE contracts and amassed more than 800 signatures.

Meanwhile, Keith Rabois defended ICE on social media and Vinod Khosla disavowed those remarks.