Some top tech leaders have embraced Trump. That's created a political
divide in Silicon Valley
[April 14, 2025] By
NICHOLAS RICCARDI
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons
used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.
The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in
the opening days of Donald Trump’s first presidential term, when he
joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley
campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its
chief executive officer joined them.
Last weekend was Lyons' second, also against Trump, but it had a very
different feel.
The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San
Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who would not give his full name
for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not
to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles, which have gone from a symbol of
Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech
executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several had
joined Trump at his January inauguration.
To Lyons, 54, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon
Valley over the past quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of
fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.
“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy
utopia to a money first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.
Political gap seen between tech leaders and their workforce
The tech industry's political allegiances remain divided. But as some in
the upper echelons of Silicon Valley began shifting to the right
politically, many of the tech industry’s everyday workers have remained
liberal — but also increasingly nervous and disillusioned. Their mood is
in stark contrast to the prominent tech leaders who have embraced a
conservative populist ideology.
“I think you're seeing a real gap between the leadership elite here in
Silicon Valley and their workforce,” said Ann Skeet, senior director of
leadership ethics at an ethics institute at Santa Clara University and a
longtime observer of the industry.
“The shift hasn’t been for a lot of people,” said Lenny Siegel, a former
mayor of Mountain View and longtime liberal activist in the valley.
“It’s a handful of people who’ve gotten the attention.”
The biggest example of that is Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and
CEO of the world’s best-known electric car company who has taken on a
prominent role slashing federal agencies in Trump's administration. Musk
has been joined by several tech billionaires, including investor David
Sacks, who helped fundraise for Trump's campaign and became the White
House’s artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, and venture
capitalist Marc Andreesen. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark
Zuckerberg also attended Trump's inauguration in Washington.
Zuckerberg began praising Trump after the then-candidate, angered over
money Zuckerberg steered toward local election offices in some states in
2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, threatened last summer to imprison
him. Zuckerberg also donated $1 million to the president's inauguration
fund and co-hosted an inauguration reception for billionaire Republican
donors.
Trump has filled a number of his administration's posts with
billionaires and his support from wealthy tech leaders led Democratic
President Joe Biden to warn that the United States risked becoming an
oligarchy ruled by elites. During Trump's first term, the valley and its
leaders were a bulwark of resistance to the Republican, especially over
immigration, given that the industry draws its workforce from around the
globe.
It's against that backdrop that thousands of people attended the recent
rally at a downtown San Jose park to protest the actions of Trump and
Musk.
Even as tech industry has changed, Silicon Valley has leaned
Democratic
Santa Clara County, which comprises most of Silicon Valley, swung 8
percentage points toward Trump in November election against Democrat
Kamala Harris, matching the shift across California. Even with that
swing, the county voted 68% to 28% for the then-vice president and
remains a Democratic stronghold.
[to top of second column] |
Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO
Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action
on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
 “We’re still in the belly of the
beast,” said Dave Johnson, the new executive director of the Santa
Clara GOP, who said the party has gained some new members in the
county but few from the tech industry. “If the lake was frozen,
there’s a little glimmer on top. I would not say there are cracks in
the ice.”
The valley has long leaned Democratic, but with an
unusual political mix: a general dislike of getting too involved in
Washington’s business coupled with an at-times contradictory mix of
libertarian individualism, Bay Area activism and belief in the
ability of science to solve the world’s problems.
That has persisted even as the tech industry has changed.
The tech boom was fueled by scrappy startups that
catered to their workers’ dreams of changing the world for the
better. Google’s motto was “don’t be evil,” a phrase it removed from
its code of conduct by 2018, when it and other companies such as
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had grown into
multinational behemoths. The companies have had layoffs in recent
years, a shock to an industry that not long ago seemed poised for
unlimited growth.
Entrepreneurs once dreamed of building startups that would change
the world, said Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University
professor who has been studying Silicon Valley culture for more than
20 years.
“Now,” she said, “if you’re part of a startup, you’re hoping you’ll
be absorbed in a way that’s profitable.”
Discontent among some in the tech industry about where it's
headed
Even before some prominent tech leaders shifted toward Trump, there
was mounting discontent among some in the industry over its
direction. IdaRose Sylvester runs a business promoting a Silicon
Valley-style approach to entrepreneurs in other countries.
“I feel sick to my stomach now,” she said.
Sylvester was already disenchanted with the growing inequality in
the valley and the environmental cost of all the energy needed to
power crypto, AI and data centers. She took part in protests against
Trump in 2017, but felt that energy fade once he lost the 2020
election to Biden.
“I saw a lot of people get out of politics once Biden won. There was
a feeling it was all OK,” Sylvester said. “It was not all OK.”
It is worse now, she said. She helped organize one of several
demonstrations across the valley last weekend during a national day
of protests against the new administration.
At first glance, the one in downtown San Jose could have been a
typical anti-Trump protest anywhere. A large crowd of largely
middle-age and older people carried signs against the president and
Musk while chanting against oligarchs.
But it was clearly a Silicon Valley crowd, one still reeling not
only from Trump’s challenges to the country’s system of checks and
balances but also from the actions of the valley’s top executives.
“The money is all shifting to the wealthiest, and that terrifies
me,” said Dianne Wood, who works at a startup. “Unfortunately,
you’ve got the Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks of the world who are
taking that over.”
“Just coming here, everyone’s saying turn off the facial recognition
on your phone,” Wood added. “We’re all scared.”
Kamal Ali, who works in AI, said he felt betrayed by that shift.
“The trust is broken. A lot of employees are very upset by what's
going on," he said. "It's going to be different forever.”
___
Associated Press writer Sarah Parvini in Los Angeles and video
journalist Haven Daley contributed to this report.
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