Ericsson's donation of 5.5 million kronor in connection with Donald Trump's inauguration as president is something new for the company. According to Dagens industri, they have never previously donated money to a presidential inauguration committee in this way.
So why are they donating a larger sum now? Ekholm points to the fact that there is an increasing arms race in the world, not least when it comes to technological development. The USA and China are fighting to be number one.
We have a very large market share in the USA and we must be able to work with whoever sits in the White House.
According to Ekholm, geopolitics plays a completely different role today than, for example, five years ago.
One can bluntly state that the speed at which geopolitics has moved is very high. Looking at the AI area, China and the USA are dominant. Europe is not on the map.
Here, the Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer needs to position itself to avoid falling behind.
We must be part of the American ecosystem – otherwise, Ericsson does not exist.
Criticism has been directed at the company's millions to Trump, and according to the union, it has stirred up feelings among the employees:
I can confirm that it is something that is being discussed a lot in different forms and that many express frustration based on the information that has come out internally, said Per Norlander, chief negotiator for Sveriges Ingenjörer at Ericsson, to Dagens industri the other day.
