Just a few years after Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg marshaled behind Donald Trump at his inauguration, questions are mounting about whether tech titans will stick with the Republicans now that the party has lost Congress and could be poised to lose power altogether in 2028.
Sources say another realignment is coming, but not a wholesale swing back to the left. While AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI may lean further left, defense tech, crypto and some tech giants increasingly see conservatives as their only allies and their best defense against an anti-tech progressive agenda that is already seeking to restrict them âand also tanking tech stocks.
Following the election, Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a progressive from Arizona said, “Top of the Democratic agenda on Day 1 needs to be a pause on advanced AI development, regulation of this out-of-control industry, and a ban on artificial superintelligence.”
Another Democrat, Rep. Ted Lieu of California, said in the wake of the blue tsunami that the Trump administration and House Republicans “made a conscious decision to let the AI industry run wild,” adding: “Two things will change next term. We will hold public hearings on AI. We will pass legislation and reasonable guardrails on AI.”
Such reactions have been a wake-up call to techies, even those who lean left, who thought they could wend their way back into the Democrats’ good graces.
“The Right may be the only option â and the only way to defend against an anti-tech agenda,” said one source who advises tech companies. “Executives realize that distancing themselves from Trump won’t necessarily make Amazon any more popular with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Elizabeth Warren.”
Crypto executives also recognize Democrats will target them relentlessly. The prospect of renewed scrutiny gives them a reason to keep fighting for allies in Washington rather than assume they can retreat from politics.
“If tech executives want to stay in the country, they are realizing they need to fight back harder against the lawmakers seeking to undercut AI,” a tech lobbyist added.
While money alone clearly doesn’t move the needle, a number of top figures like Musk remain invested in Republican success even as they look elsewhere for places to expand factories and buildouts. Musk has even floated putting data centers in space.
They are also pointing to the apparent defeat of California’s wealth tax â while votes are still being counted, voters appear to have slapped it down by nearly a 10% margin â as one example of success, something they campaigned against and appear to have won.
Still, in the short term, some companies may look to limit their exposure in the US and build elsewhere. Google announced Wednesday that it’s investing $15 billion into infrastructure in Malaysia.
Following the election, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said new U.S. data-center projects would be harder to construct and raised the prospect of building outside the country.
But moving elsewhere will not necessarily end the scrutiny for tech giants. Prominent tech journalist Kara Swisher has suggested Musk and even lower-level DOGE employees, like the so-called “big balls” Edward Coristine, could go to jail. Scott Galloway, who co-hosts the “Pivot” podcast with Swisher, has called Coristine “a traitor to the West.”
On Nov. 2, Hillary Clinton appeared on another Swisher podcast, “High Stakes,” and said that Democrats should still call Musk to testify even if Trump pardons him because a pardon may strip his ability to plead the Fifth, suggesting the pressure is not going away.
Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, who are more friendly with Democrats, may see the incoming regulation as something closer to an opportunity than a threat, sources add.
Executives like Sam Altman and Dario Amodei have been pushing for increased regulation and halting innovation, so having legislators rein everyone in could be a positive for them.
For now, Wall Street is already facing the consequences as tech stocks tank dramatically and that could be just getting started. Nvidia and AMD shares both fell roughly 10% after the elections.
UBS analysts estimated that potential construction pauses could put around 30% of expected US data-center capacity additions in 2028 at risk. The post-midterms political concerns compound existing doubts about whether the enormous sums being spent on AI infrastructure will generate sufficient returns.
For Democrats, meanwhile, there is an alternative to demanding that tech executives repent for their association with Trump.
Venture investor and All-In podcast host Jason Calacanis recently urged the party to support AI and data centers in communities that want them, then use the tax revenue to help fund universal healthcare. One source dismissed the idea as “delusional.”