In his farewell address to the nation, former President Biden warned about the rising political power of the country’s wealthiest tech executives. Five days later, many of the “oligarchs” he warned the nation about were seated in the front row as President Trump was sworn into office.
The two events mark a sea change in Silicon Valley’s relationship with Washington, which may have profound effects on the future of both AI policy and the nation.
For years, Silicon Valley leaders have had a cozy relationship with both sides of the aisle in Washington. Marc Andreessen, a tech billionaire and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, told the New York Times that the tech world had an unofficial deal with Democrats: Tech startups will make lots of money, pay lots of taxes and support all the standard things Democrats advocate for, like LGBTQ and abortion rights. In return, they’ll be spared regulation and criticism.
The agreement drew the ire of some Republicans who claimed that social media unfairly censored conservative speech, despite evidence to the contrary.. But the GOP’s belief in laissez-faire capitalism kept Silicon Valley safe from onerous regulations, even with all the complaints.
President Trump’s political arrival in 2015 changed the dynamic. Trump particularly relished bashing big tech. His first administration launched antitrust lawsuits against Google and Meta in what many speculated at the time as personal revenge for perceived slights.
Liberals around the country seethed at the way Facebook indirectly helped Trump win the 2016 election and started their own calls to rein in big tech. In 2019, the House launched an antitrust investigation into big tech. When the Biden administration took office, Democrats cheered the possibility of breaking up Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta.
Andreessen’s deal started to fray when young progressives criticized the tech world and seemingly broke completely with the Biden administration’s antitrust agenda.
Big tech was stuck between two parties that appeared eager to regulate them. But the problems that Republicans have had with tech companies proved easier to overcome.
Elon Musk won over Republicans by adopting their language about social media censorship, even before he threw his full weight behind Trump and got an office in the White House.
After the election, much of the tech world followed Musk’s example, with million-dollar donations to Trump’s inauguration fund and the end of fact-checking on Meta platforms.
OpenAI even changed its lobbying strategy. Instead of asking Democrats to regulate emerging AI, the company now sells itself as America’s best bet in the competition with China. On Tuesday, CEO Sam Altman was in the White House to announce a new infrastructure partnership with Oracle and SoftBank that would see up to $500 billion spent on AI infrastructure over the next four years.
The project uses exclusively private sector money, and construction started on 10 data centers before Trump was sworn into office on Monday, making it unclear how the president helped with the project beyond providing a forum to announce it.
On his first day in office, Trump rescinded Biden’s comprehensive AI safety executive order, easing regulations on the new technology.
While big tech’s front row seats at the inauguration highlight their apparent success in aligning with Trump, it’s also a sign that they are firmly trapped in his net.
“It’s like walking into Teddy Roosevelt’s lodge and seeing the mounted heads of all the big game he shot,” former Trump advisor Steve Bannon told The Atlantic, about the tech CEO’s capitulation to Trump.
Trump is a hard friend to keep. If big tech loses Trump, it’ll have no safe harbor in Washington.
