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On January 20, 2025, former President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office, and nearly the entire elite of Silicon Valley arrived to witness the event. Elon Musk, the world's richest man and the main owner of Space X and Tesla, and Marc Andreessen, a tech investor who once identified as a Democrat but had become one of Trump's closest supporters, were among the notable attendees.

Peter Thiel, known as "the original right tech bro," did not attend the inauguration but hosted a lavish party later that evening for some of the world's wealthiest individuals. The most shocking aspect was the presence of tech barons who had never originally backed Trump: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai, Apple's Tim Cook, and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew.

Many of their companies had donated substantial sums to the current festivities, according to Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist. This was a surrender that paid off handsomely. Trump, whose message for years had been directed at working-class Americans, became a president for Silicon Valley. He removed regulations, ousted Biden appointees who had criticized potential monopolistic practices, and lowered taxes.

However, more importantly, Trump said no to stricter control of artificial intelligence and yes to data centers. The United States needed to win the technological race against China. And the only reason Americans would be opposed to data centers was if they ended up "as outcasts and poor," he insisted. Democrats naturally criticized the lack of accountability from tech industry supporters, and the left raged against billionaires, but it was nothing new under the sun.

When tech barons went to bed with Trump, it was the final drop. They were no longer billionaires who still supported the good side, but political opportunists dancing with the Devil and making money as grass. An example of how the winds shifted was Gina Hinojosa of Texas. She won the governor's race against a sitting Republican in a conservative stronghold.

One of Hinojosa's key issues was to stop the development of new data centers, a cause she pursued by talking to people at workplaces and around kitchen tables across the state. When the markets plunged on Friday, the primary direct cause was concern over what Democrats would do with their midterm election victory. The tech industry, of course, is watching what is happening.

The Financial Times reports on how they are already cashing in on lobbying with connections to Democrats, including the daughter of the Democratic leader in the Senate. However, tech companies "underestimate how poisonous they are in corridors of power," says a source quoted by the newspaper. In recent years, Republican politicians and organizations have received over $600 million in donations from the tech environment.