Demonstrators gather on Michigan Avenue in heavy snow to protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Chicago, USA, on January 25, 2026.
Jacek Bocharski | Anadolu | Getty Images
While some technology industry leaders are beginning to speak out in the wake of the shooting death of ICU nurse Alex Preti in Minneapolis, the silence from some of the industry’s most prominent figures has been deafening.
The killing of George Floyd in the same city nearly five years ago prompted widespread condemnation from Wall Street and across Silicon Valley. But a year into the second Trump administration, tech company leaders have remained silent since Preti’s death and the murder of Renee Nicole Good several weeks ago.
Preti, a 37-year-old nurse and American citizen, was shot and killed by federal agents on Saturday.
That night, apple According to multiple media outlets, CEO Tim Cook was at the White House for a screening of a new documentary about the first lady. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and advanced micro device According to multiple reports, CEO Lisa Su was also in attendance. The White House hosted a private screening of “Melania,” produced by Amazon-MGM Studios, ahead of its premiere later this week.
Representatives for Apple, Amazon, AMD and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Many big names in the industry spoke out, but not the mega-cap CEOs who rushed to Washington, D.C., to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration last January. Many of them also donated to the inauguration process.
Former “murderers” meta Chief AI scientist Yann LeCun wrote on X on Monday that he reshared a graphic video of the agent’s shooting over the weekend. LeCun left Meta late last year to start his own company.
“Politics exists, but humanity must rise above it,” wrote LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. microsoft’s board of directors. Hoffman reshared several posts criticizing the Trump administration’s policies and called attention to the silence of top technology industry leaders.
At Google, longtime artificial intelligence leader Jeff Dean expressed his views and was thanked by many of his colleagues for standing up.
Dean, who has previously criticized the Trump administration’s actions on his social media, wrote: “This should be condemned by all, regardless of political affiliation.”
In a post Saturday, Dean, who said he lived in Minneapolis when he was in middle school, reposted the video of the shooting and called it “absolutely shameful.”
President Trump and his administration have blamed Democrats and local officials, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller have both accused Preti of being a domestic terrorist. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC’s “This Week” that the victim brought a semi-automatic rifle “into what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.” There is no evidence that Preeti brandished a gun.
In response to Mr. Bessent’s comments, box “I believe we are in a post-truth world where words no longer matter,” CEO Aaron Levy wrote of X.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz and local law enforcement leaders have called on the president to remove immigration agents from the city. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “Minneapolis has had three homicides since the beginning of the year, two of which were committed by federal agents.”
Considering what happened five years ago, it’s surprising that the tech industry hasn’t been included in the conversation.
In 2020, top executives joined the chorus of outrage over Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers. The Black Lives Matter movement has led to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. Nearly a week after Floyd’s death, Apple’s Cook sent a memo to employees condemning the killing.
Companies such as Apple, airbnb, Uber, intelYouTube, Shopify After Mr. Floyd’s death, all donated millions of dollars to organizations fighting for equality and opportunity.
Tech workers are putting pressure on top officials to break their recent silence after the murders of Preti and Good.
A petition signed by tech workers and circulated last week cites Immigration and Customs Enforcement as responsible for Goode’s death and asks CEOs to “speak out against ICE’s actions.” As of Monday, the petition had been signed by more than 400 people, many from the industry. google, meta and Amazon.
“Today, we call on CEOs to pick up the phone again: 1. Call the White House and demand that ICE be removed from our cities. 2. Termination of all corporate contracts with ICE. and 3. Speak out publicly against ICE violence,” the petition reads.
AI startup Anthropic is one of the few big-name companies that is breaking the mold.
CEO Dario Amodei referred to “the horrors we’re seeing in Minnesota” in a comment to X after posting an essay he wrote about AI. He said the paper is “particularly important because it emphasizes the importance of preserving democratic values and rights within the country.”
Anthropic co-founder Christopher Oler, who doesn’t speak publicly about politics, said in a social media post Sunday that “recent events – the killing of an ICU nurse by federal agents seemingly without reason or provocation – have shocked my conscience,” adding, “I’m very sad today.”
James Diet, head of global business at OpenAI, on Saturday criticized tech leaders for speaking out against California’s proposed wealth tax while remaining silent about “masked ICE agents terrorizing communities and executing civilians on the streets.”
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham reshared Dyett’s post.
“How bad do things have to get before you say something?” he said.
In October, technology industry leaders showed how much influence they had over President Trump after the president threatened to send the National Guard to San Francisco.
after a call from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: sales force CEO Marc Benioff and others withdrew from President Trump.
CEOs from more than 60 Minnesota-based companies attended Sunday. target and united healthThe letter called for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions.”
President Trump on Monday ordered Border Czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to get the situation under control.
“Tom is tough but fair and will report directly to me,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
WATCH: Senate Democrats oppose Homeland Security funding after second mass shooting in Minneapolis
