A look at change in Silicon Valley as tech industry shifts to support Trump
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- In his first term as president, Donald Trump regularly clashed with big tech, accusing social media giants of manipulating coverage of him, but now founders and CEOs are looking to improve those relationships with many publicly embracing the incoming president. They mark a larger shift in the tech industry.
President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its Person of the Year.
Time Magazine is owned by Marc Benioff, the founder of San Francisco-based Salesforce. Benioff, once a Trump critic who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, noted the Time Person fo the Year selection by writing on X: "We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone."
Trump is also getting support from Mark Zuckerberg as Meta has announced a donation of $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund.
Zuckerberg -- usually a supporter of liberal causes -- and Trump were not always aligned, especially after Meta suspended Trump's Facebook account after the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
"OK, we see which way the wind is blowing, now we're going to suck up to the new regime," said Steve Hilton, co-founder of Crowdpac and founder of Golden Together.
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Hilton, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Trump supporter, explains his view on the shift.
"It's in a way, deeper than policy, this libertarian ethos in Silicon Valley," Hilton said. "It's been a big part of the culture for decades. It's just that for the longest time, it's just been assumed that everyone in Silicon Valley is a Democrat. And so I think that was the reason that he probably went along with some of those things. But deep down, that libertarian drive and ethos, I think is really really central to Mark Zuckerberg and a lot of these tech founders."
Silicon Valley leaders are regularly discussing these shifts online. Like on a recent episode of the "All In" podcast, where former PayPal executive David Sacks said he's bullish about policy changes for big tech.
"You're going to see the end of this era of deceleration, regulatory capture and lawfare," Sacks said.
MORE: Trump names PayPal co-founder 'White House AI and crypto czar' in new role for his administration
His "All In" co-host Jason Calacanis noted that it wasn't without work on the back-end.
"As we all know, Trump heavily, heavily courted the crypto currency during his campaign," Calacanis said.
"Remember, all these people think of themselves, and mostly they are, as disruptors, as taking something that's sclerotic and broken and completely revolutionizing it," Hilton said. "That's how they think in terms of their businesses. And so I think that in the broad sense, excited about now doing that at the government level for the federal bureaucracy. I'd love to see that happen in California, too."
President-elect Trump has vowed to repeal President Joe Biden's AI Executive Order, which aimed to create safeguards and protect people's rights without hurting innovation.
It still remains to be seen how the incoming Republican-controlled Congress will tackle big issues around high tech regulation.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
