Tech company CEOs who largely sat on the sidelines for the presidential election sent their congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump, ignoring Trump’s history of threats against some of them and joining their peer Elon Musk in welcoming Trump back to power.
A series of tech titans weighed in on social media with warm wishes for Trump including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon Executive Chair Jeff Bezos and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
“Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory,” Zuckerberg wrote on his app Threads. “We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country. Looking forward to working with you and your administration.”
Trump publicly threatened Zuckerberg with “life in prison” in a book published two months ago — one of many battles between Trump and the tech industry that the CEOs appeared to be putting aside at least temporarily in the wake of Trump’s electoral victory. “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote in his book, regarding Zuckerberg.
The demonstrations of support signalled a tidal shift in the politics of Silicon Valley, as Trump supporters are ascendant in the tech industry and as executives who at points resisted Trump now face little choice but to work with him — or even seek Trump’s favour in regulatory matters — for the next four years.
Musk was early in his support of Trump compared with other tech executives, helping to propel the candidate to victory with a super PAC that spent more than $152 million in the past few months, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
Trump’s win came about with the help of Musk and his wealthy tech friends including investors Peter Thiel and David Sacks. They boosted Trump with financial contributions, fundraising help and public endorsements on subjects such as the economy and deregulation.
Trump’s relationship with the tech industry could affect Americans in countless ways, from economic factors such as imported goods to less tangible outcomes such as the privacy of company-held personal data.
