Silicon Valley claims to know the future. So why did it get the midterms so wrong?
Which is why I find it so strange that Zuckerberg, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman, and so many of Silicon Valley’s other prominent AI leaders and venture capitalists have put themselves in a potentially inescapable political bind.
Key points
- The instant gratification of presidential access, subsidies, and a say in their own regulation blinded them to the basics of political math that they clearly did not understand.
- Most companies play to both sides of the aisle because they know that their business models and multibillion-dollar projects must outlast the current administration.
- Long-term vision is currency: Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg built a 10-year road map for Facebook in 2016, and Google famously told investors before its public offering that it was unconcerned with short-term results.
The self-styled visionaries of Silicon Valley, leaders like OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, have built careers claiming to see the future.
Additional details
- Despite dozens of polls showing a rising tide of anti-Trump sentiment and bipartisan rejection of AI and data centers, the futurists of the tech elite cast aside long-term corporate interests for short-term political favor.
- Zuckerberg has yet to address the results internally, while an employee at another AI firm said that “leadership has been pretty silent on Slack.” Most employees share concern about potential anti-data-center legislation and are curious how leadership will adjust to a Democratic Washington, DC.
- In going all in on President Trump’s cultural and business agenda instead of playing both sides of the aisle as corporate America usually does, they’ve built identities they may not be able to pivot out of.
- Will anyone really believe that Palantir CEO Alex Karp is suddenly progressive after a year of promising “ violence and death to our enemies ” and telling investors that the company is “completely anti-woke”?
- And yet there they all were, a mere five weeks before the midterm elections, gathered at the White House to smile for photos with President Trump and sign on to his “Super Intelligence” agenda.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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