Dem
47
GOP
53
At the beginning of the Internet age, many of the leaders were, if not hippies (Steve Jobs comes to mind), vaguely left-ish or somewhat libertarian. Some were nonpolitical nerds (e.g., Bill Gates). Google's initial motto was "Don't be evil" and when two Stanford students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were running the show, they really meant it. They were certainly not hard right.
Times are changing. No one would accuse immigrant Peter Thiel of being a hippie. Nor Larry Ellison or Marc Andreessen. Elon Musk? Are you serious? What happened? Many of them liked Barack Obama's youth and vitality. They were mostly confused by Trump v1.0 and they actually prospered during the Biden administration, despite the president not being exactly youthful and hip. In particular, Biden encouraged the tech industry to work with the defense industry, leading to smart weapons and mass surveillance techniques.
Nevertheless, according to a new book by Jacob Silverman, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, Biden's attempts to put some mild restraints on the industry (to head off the peasants coming with pitchforks to tear the whole thing down) angered the billionaires who do not take kindly to being told "no." Ever. Also, his occasional talk about breaking up some of the big companies was not a big hit with them.
The new-found love of Trump by tech billionaires Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg and others is probably more expediency than true love. Yes, he cut their taxes but more important, Trump is mean and vengeful and getting on the wrong side of him could be expensive. Better to butter him up and say he runs rings around Abe Lincoln than to become a target. Also, being his buddy could produce some big government contracts as a fringe benefit.
Another factor, though, is the Democrats' heavy focus on DEI and identity politics. Tech billionaires always think they made it to the top due to their extraordinary merit. They tend to be very averse to considering any other factors than merit when hiring or promoting people. Getting bonus points for belonging to some group that has never made a big impression on the tech industry doesn't make their hearts sing. This put them much more in tune with the Republicans than the Democrats.
Also lurking in the background is crypto. Democrats see it as a scam that sucks in people who can least afford it.
They fully expect it to crash and burn some day, the way all Ponzi schemes do. Trump, by contrast, loves the idea of a
good scam and believes he can make wild profits off the cultists rubes base using crypto. Since crypto is
just digital air, naturally tech geniuses think it is cool.
Some of the tech leaders, starting with Peter Thiel, think democracy is outmoded software that needs to be upgraded. After all, letting millions of dumb yahoos have the ability to tell you what you can and cannot do is not appealing. Better to have a technocracy, with brilliant tech leaders running the show. If you want to dismantle democracy and get rid of these annoying voters, Trump is the ideal leader for you. He is almost as good as J.D. Vance, who is actually one of them and who understands their point of view. He was also thoroughly "mentored" by Thiel. The tech bosses will certainly support Vance with all they have got in 2028.
The one fly in the ointment here is that the worker bees in Silicon Valley are mostly Democrats. Most of Silicon Valley is in Santa Clara County. In 2024, Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump there by 40 points, 68% to 28%. The Libertarian Party candidate, Chase Oliver, got 0.5%. Part of Silicon Valley spills over to San Mateo County, to the north and west of Santa Clara. There the slaughter was even worse. Trump lost there by 51 points, 74% to 23%. The congressman from Silicon Valley (CA-17) is Democrat Ro Khanna, one of the most progressive members of the House. A situation in which the bosses are (or pretend to be) right-wing Trumpers and the workers hate him with a passion is, as they say in the Valley, suboptimal. (V)