Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™.
“Oligarchy” is the word that has been spread across the internet and used to describe what has been observed during Donald Trump’s inauguration. “Oligarchy” is defined as “a country, institution, or organization led by a small group of people.” Observers saw the leaders of the most powerful tech companies in the world not just in attendance but sitting where friends and family sit. They had better seats than Trump’s cabinet. It’s not uncommon for business leaders to convene in Washington D.C. to usher in the exchange of power, but the previous relationship that Trump had with these tech CEOs, and its change to what is seen now, is something to take note of. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta; Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; and, of course Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, were all close to the president during his swearing in. Each one of these executives has had their company’s relationship with the Trump administration evolve over time. During Trump’s first term, it was popular in Silicon Valley to be in opposition to Trump, take stances publicly, and introduce policies internally that reflected that opposing view. Fast forward to now, and the narrative in tech has switched to building a relationship with Trump and his administration. In this piece, I will touch on how each of these executives’ companies has evolved their position with Trump over the past 8 years and what that means for the tech industry.
Sundar Pichai, the current CEO of Alphabet, which owns Google, YouTube, Waymo, and a slew of other innovations, was in attendance at Trump’s inauguration. Pichai became CEO of Google in 2015 and then CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., in 2019. He has championed diversity and inclusion throughout his time as CEO even going as far as firing a former Google employee named James Damore who wrote a 10-page manifesto against the diversity and inclusion policies at the company titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.” Pichai had also made statements publicly during Trump’s first term that denounced his executive order aimed at curtailing immigration from predominantly Muslim countries. When this happened, Pichai and one of Google’s co-founders Sergey Brin gave a speech to over 2,000 Googlers that collectively raised $4 million to support groups working on refugee and immigrant rights. So when he was seen at Trump’s second-term inauguration that may have surprised people given his previous commitments to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, not to mention his being pro-immigration as an immigrant from India himself. While some executives in attendance have publicly stated their company’s stance on DEI going forward, we have not heard anything from Pichai and Alphabet as of yet. I believe that we will not see Pichai roll back DEI efforts in the coming months. However, some may speculate he will reduce initiatives because of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court scoring the company a win against the 17 states that filed an antitrust lawsuit against it. The plaintiffs claim the tech giant’s dominance over digital advertising makes it an illegal monopoly.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, was also in attendance at Trump’s inauguration after leaving Amazon’s CEO seat in July 2021 to longtime Amazon veteran Andy Jassy who currently leads the company. Bezos’ relationship with Trump has evolved over time from one that was once adversarial to one that seems more cordial in recent years. During Trump’s first campaign, Bezos was critical of his behavior to the point that while at a Vanity Fair event in 2016 where he was being recognized for innovative work, he said that Trump’s behavior “erodes democracy around the edges.” So it was surprising to see Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, blocked the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris in the most recent presidential election. This move by Bezos caused 200,000 subscribers to cancel their subscriptions. In recent weeks, he was seen having dinner with President Trump and Elon Musk at Mar-a-lago.
While Pichai has not said anything publicly and Bezos appears to try to be neutral, Zuckerberg, Musk, and Cook have stated publicly how their companies will move forward during Trump’s administration. At Meta, the company has chosen to roll back specific commitments around DEI as it relates to content moderation on the platform and hiring practices. Musk has long been connected to the Trump administration and was one of his biggest donors and supporters during his campaign. Musk has been rewarded with the task of leading a new governmental entity called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. Cook stands alone for being in attendance but not changing Apple’s previous commitments to diversity. The company’s board has asked shareholders to reject a proposal submitted by conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy and Research to cut back on its DEI efforts.
Values are not values unless they have the potential to cost you something. As we can see, some executives look to have their companies reflect their values even if they have to use time and money to defend them, while others are choosing the path of least resistance. Given the different relationship that each exec has with Trump and his policies, I do not believe that we are seeing a tech oligarchy form but instead will see tech leaders having a much bigger role in the federal government than with previous administrations. This may cascade down to state and federal governments and how they view their relationship with the tech leaders in their regions. We may even see states and cities inviting more of them to the table to help improve their communities. Technology and policy are intersecting in ways they had not in years prior, so to plan for how this may impact your career in the future, it’s best to see how changes in technology may influence policy moving forward.
