• Google is joining tech companies like Amazon and Meta in donating to Donald Trump's inauguration.
• The search giant said it is giving $1 million, more than triple what it gave Trump in 2017.
• In September, Trump threatened to prosecute Google if he was elected president.

Google said it is donating $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's coming inauguration.

"Google is pleased to support the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage. We're also donating to the inaugural committee," the company's global head of government affairs and public policy, Karan Bhatia, told CNBC.

Google's contribution, which will help fund the celebratory events after Trump takes office, is more than triple what it gave in 2017. The search giant donated $285,000 to Trump's first inauguration, per Federal Election Commission filings.

Back in September, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he would prosecute Google "at the maximum levels" if he won the election.

In his post, Trump accused Google of "illegally" using its system to display only "bad stories" about him while surfacing positive reports about his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Google and Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Trump's second inauguration, on January 20, has seen donations pour in from multiple companies and business leaders.

The president-elect has received contributions from tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Uber. Like Google, all four companies have donated $1 million each.

That's on top of the personal donations made by tech executives like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Both Altman and Khosrowshahi donated $1 million each as well.

"One of the big differences between the first term, in the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend," Trump said at a press conference in December.

"I don't know, my personality changed or something," he added.

Since winning the election in November, Trump has raised more than $200 million in donations, of which at least $150 million will go toward the inauguration, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Trump raised $106.8 million for his first inauguration in 2017, per the FEC.

• Trump has raised millions from CEOs and businesses for his inauguration and presidential library.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook was the latest to contribute, Axios reported.
• The Times reported that Trump has raised over $200 million since winning a second term.

President-elect Donald Trump will take office in less than three weeks.

In the meantime, he continues to craft his policy agenda and make key appointments for his second administration.

He is also raking in substantial amounts of money.

From Meta and Coinbase to Ford and GM, businesses and CEOs are contributing large sums to Trump's inauguration and future presidential library as the president-elect prepares to enter the Oval Office for a second term.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is the latest to contribute $1 million of his own money to Trump's inaugural committee, according to Axios.

Trump has so far collected a total of at least $200 million, according to The New York Times, which spoke to sources involved in the fundraising. At least $150 million of that will go toward his inaugural, far more than the $107 million he raised for the event in 2017.

The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. is also set to benefit from the cash infusion, giving Trump's allies a powerful vehicle to boost his conservative plans on everything from tax policy to the environment, as well as the GOP lawmakers who'll back his agenda.

David Tamasi, a Washington lobbyist, waved off the notion that donors were contributing to Trump to stay on his good side. However, he told the Times that some leaders may seek to build rapport after being detached from the president-elect's orbit.

"It is a time-honored DC tradition that corporations are enthusiastically embracing this cycle in all manners, largely because they were on the sidelines during previous Trump cycles," Tamasi said. "They no longer have to hedge their political bets."

There are virtually no limits to contributions for inaugural committees, and corporations have traditionally funded inaugurations regardless of the political party of the incoming commander in chief.

President Joe Biden's inaugural committee raised $63.8 million for his 2021 inauguration, according to FEC filings.

Trump's relationships with many top business leaders became rocky during his first term, namely in the aftermath of the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalist groups sparked violent clashes. The January 6, 2021 attack at the US Capitol, days before Trump left office, led several companies to pause financial contributions to GOP politicians who had voted to overturn the 2020 presidential results.

Even during the 2024 presidential campaign, some business leaders stayed out of the political fray, while others, like LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings, supported Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.

• Big Tech companies and CEOs are already lining up six-figure donations to Donald Trump's inauguration.
• Amazon, Sam Altman, and Meta are each prepared to donate $1 million.
• There are virtually no limits on inaugural donations, meaning Big Tech companies can cut massive checks.

Big Tech companies and the moguls behind them are preparing to make six-figure donations to President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural committee.

Jeff Bezos' Amazon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta have all been reported to have made or will make $1 million to the outfit tasked with planning and organizing Trump's triumphant return to power.

"The financing of inaugurations is really a cesspool when it comes to campaign financing," Craig Holman, a lobbyist for government watchdog Public Citizen, told Business Insider.

Holman said there are few, if any, limits to inaugural donations, and what makes them particularly appealing is that megadonors and CEOs don't have to worry about picking the loser.

"Unlike financing a campaign, when you don't know for sure who is going to win, here in the inauguration, you've got the winner," he said. "So corporations and other special interests just throw money at them at the feet of the president with the hope of currying favor."

Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a public interest group, said donations to the inaugural committee are less likely to irk the opposition.

"They are frequently a mechanism for entities that sit out elections to get good with the incoming administration," he said.

Trump's 2017 inaugural set a record, raking in roughly $107 million. Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson donated $5 million, the largest single donation. AT&T gave just over $2 million. For many in Washington, it was a time to make nice with an incoming president that few thought would win the 2016 race.

This time, Trump's inaugural offers one final major opportunity for CEOs to curry influence with the president-elect at his peak.

Since he'll be term-limited, the next major fundraising opportunity likely won't come until Trump begins preparations for a presidential library (should that even occur). At that point, companies will have missed their window to make a final impression before mergers and acquisitions.

2017 Trump inaugural donors benefited greatly

Playing ball can have major benefits. OpenSecrets found in 2018 that "of the 63 federal contractors that donated to the inauguration, more than half won multimillion-dollar bids" from the federal government later on.

Foreign donors can't contribute to a president-elect's inaugural committee, and the committee must publicly disclose details about donations over $200 within 90 days of Inauguration Day. Otherwise, there are few limits on what individuals or corporations can give, and inaugural committees are not required to explain how they spend the money.

Some presidents, especially Obama in 2009, have imposed voluntary restrictions on donations. Obama refused to accept corporate donations or individual contributions over $50,000 for his historic first inauguration, though he later lifted those limits for his reelection celebration.

Hauser said donations will allow corporations to prepare for an especially transactional period.

"I think that corporations with an agenda in Trump's Washington, be it offense, like getting new contracts, or defense, like avoiding negative federal scrutiny, are going to spend millions of dollars in Washington to either make or protect billions in the real economy," Hauser said.

Tech companies are under the microscope.

Amazon, Google, and Meta have all faced antitrust concerns. Republican lawmakers have frequently grilled Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook's decision to limit sharing the New York Post's initial report on Hunter Biden's laptop ahead of the 2020 election. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated to help election officials during the COVID-19 pandemic, enraging some on the right, while Trump repeatedly lit into Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for The Washington Post's coverage of his first administration. Amazon sued the Trump administration after Microsoft was awarded a $10 billion cloud computing contract over them, alleging that Trump's animus for Bezos sunk their chances.

Bezos and Zuckerberg have since taken steps to repair their relationships with the Trump world. Zuckerberg has expressed regret over Facebook's decision to censor some posts about COVID-19. He also pledged not to donate to help election officials. Bezos intervened when The Post's editorial board was ready to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.

Bezos also recently said Trump seemed "calmer than he was the first time and more settled."

"You've probably grown in the last eight years," Bezos said at The New York Times DealBook Summit in December. "He has, too."

Altman has been entangled in a legal battle with his OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk, who is set to be an influential figure in the Trump administration.

In a statement about his donation, Altman said, "President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead."

Representatives for Amazon, Meta, and Trump's inaugural did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

To get a taste of what may be in store, one only needs to look at what happened at President Joe Biden's inauguration.

A leaked fundraising memo showed that large donations netted individuals and organizations various perks, including opportunities to meet Biden, receive private briefings from top campaign officials, and "preferred viewing" for the virtual inauguration.

All of those benefits came amid pandemic precautions. Trump's party will have no such limits.