A pair of US senators reportedly accused leading technology companies of attempting to win the favour of President-elect Donald Trump by donating millions to his inauguration ceremony, noting many face ongoing government investigations and regulatory actions.

Fox News reported Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennet wrote to Amazon, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Uber last week to express concerns.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted their letter on X. In it, the politicians expressed concern the companies and other technology businesses “are using your massive contributions to the inaugural fund to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration in an effort to avoid scrutiny, limit regulation and buy favour”.

Altman personally contributed $1 million to the fund while Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta Platforms each donated the same amount for the swearing in ceremony scheduled to take place later today (20 January).

Axios reported Apple CEO Tim Cook is also personally donating $1 million.

The politicians argued the companies “have a clear and direct interest in obtaining favours from the incoming administration”, while noting the businesses and others “are already the subject of ongoing federal investigations and regulatory actions”.

In a response on X, Altman wrote: “funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats”.

CNBC reported Altman will join Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the ceremony.

The politicians outlined various rulings, investigations and regulatory efforts underway against Apple, Amazon Google, Meta Platforms, OpenAI and Uber, and asked Altman to answer a series of questions regarding why the company decided to make the contribution.

They also ask Altman whether OpenAI officials had any communications about the donation with members of Trump’s transition team or other associates.

In his response, Altman noted it was “a personal contribution” and he was therefore “confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision”.