As the center of innovation in the United States, Silicon Valley has long been regarded as a bastion of liberalism. The news of Trump's victory in 2016 triggered a wave of despair and anxiety there. Now that the new round of U.S. elections is full of suspense, the wind direction in Silicon Valley seems to be drifting.

"I fully support President Trump's campaign and hope he will recover soon." On the day of the assassination of Republican presidential candidate Trump on July 13, Musk posted an article on X, and posted frequently about the matter in the following days, with many emotional statements. Two years ago, he was still writing a document advising Trump to "retire and return to his hometown" instead of running for re-election.

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As an angel investor in major companies such as SpaceX, Uber and Palantir, venture capitalist David Sachs was a former supporter of Democratic Hillary Clinton. This time, he supported Trump early and urged his colleagues on social platforms to donate to the Republican Party, claiming that he "couldn't afford another four years of Biden economics."

After Trump announced Vance as his running mate, he continued to be welcomed by some investors in Silicon Valley. "They all called and wanted to support me." Last week, Trump was proud of his popularity in an interview with Bloomberg, referring to the CEOs of the Fortune 100.

However, data from OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that tracks U.S. political funding, shows that in this election cycle, before Biden withdrew, about 80% of donations from U.S. Internet companies went to the Democratic Party.

After the Democratic Party changed candidates, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris quickly gained the support of two major donors: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman stated a few minutes after Biden withdrew that he would support Harris in running for president; spokespersons for financial giant George Soros and his sons also said they all supported Harris.

Harris seems to be turning the tide for the Democratic Party, but MAGA (Make America Great Again) is gaining momentum with the support of billionaires in the technology world. American cryptocurrency entrepreneur Ryan Serkis said on social platform X: "The blue wall of technology is collapsing before our eyes."

Is this a real change or an illusion created by a few tech millionaires? The answer is not only related to the U.S. election, but also a foresight for the future development trajectory of the country's technology industry.

The signal sent by donations and shouts

On June 6, Silicon Valley venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted a technology industry fundraising event for Trump. The New York Post stated that more than 100 people attended that night, raising a total of $12 million. "This is a completely different atmosphere from the atmosphere in 2016, when the stigma of supporting Trump was fading." A source revealed.

Looking back in 2016, according to Associated Press counting statistics, only 9.4% of people in San Francisco voted for Trump. In 2020, this proportion rose to 13%, but the Bay Area is still one of the bluest areas in California.

Eight years later, times have changed. According to public documents from the U.S. Federal Election Commission, as of July 20, the names of many Silicon Valley stars have appeared among donors to Trump's "America PAC", including the Winklevoss brothers, co-founder of Gemini, Doug Lionel, former senior managing partner of Sequoia Capital, and Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies. In addition, PayPal co-founder Keith Rabois, who in 2016 called Trump a "sociopath", has pledged $1 million for Trump's campaign.

Sarah Breiner, head of data research at Open Secrets, a U.S. website that tracks political money, told the BBC that donations from the technology industry send a strong signal that political trends are changing. She believes signs of victory in an election often help push potential donors out of silence.

Of course, there are also silent people in Silicon Valley, such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Zuckerberg who have always remained neutral. In contrast, Tesla founder Musk is undoubtedly one of the most active figures in the spotlight.

According to the New York Times, both parties are seeking Musk's support in this election. Former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is one of the matchmakers between Musk and Trump. Over the years, Musk has often sought political and lobbying advice from McCarthy. In addition, several close friends of Trump and Musk's more conservative social circles in Texas also helped the relationship between the two. "I talked to him, and he did call me for no reason," Musk said at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in June.

After Trump's assassination, Musk not only immediately sent greetings and support, but also posted a post praising the Republican candidate, saying that "the last such tough presidential candidate in the United States was Theodore Roosevelt." Musk has 189.5 million fans on the X platform, and his support for Trump has been widely circulated. However, he recently clarified again in an interview that he had no plans to donate US$45 million a month to Trump.

"Venture capitalists hold loudspeakers, but that doesn't mean they can represent Silicon Valley." Vinod Khosla, the first investor in OpenAI, held a fundraising event for Biden in May. He believes that the outside world's views on Silicon Valley have been distorted by a few people. The so-called "few" calculations are to "relax regulation and make it more wealth","Trump's opinions can be bought", and "anyone supports cryptocurrency."

The New York Times reported on July 20 that the vast majority of ordinary employees of technology companies still vote Democratic. A recent poll conducted by Silicon Valley technology media The Information showed that less than 30% of respondents claimed to vote for Trump, and the Democratic Party still has an advantage.

Reason for turning around

Musk and other venture capitalists 'support for Trump may not paint the full picture of Silicon Valley's political stance. But behind the uproar is that in Silicon Valley, some billionaires who once scoffed at Trump have indeed reversed course. The question is, what is catalysing such changes?

Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, a centre-left U.S. technology policy organization, pointed out to CNN that the two biggest pain points facing the technology industry are the Biden administration's antitrust enforcement measures and its attitude towards cryptocurrencies.

This means that the tech giant may not really like Trump, but is disappointed with the Biden administration, especially with current Federal Trade Commission Chairman Lena Khan, who is known as an antitrust fighter, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, both of whom are hostile to digital assets.

Lina Khan, who has taken the lead in filing lawsuits against Amazon, Microsoft and Meta in recent years, said in an interview that such actions aim to divert more government resources to solve the daily economic problems of ordinary Americans. Gensler, on the other hand, is highly skeptical of cryptocurrencies, criticizing the industry as "riddled with fraud, scams, bankruptcy and money laundering." Last year, the SEC sued two major crypto asset exchanges in a row, and last month it filed a lawsuit against U.S. cryptocurrency company Consensus.

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, two well-known venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, wrote an article on July 5 that the U.S. government is now far more hostile to technology startups than in the past, and bad policies are the biggest threat to them."

On the other hand, there are values and cultural reasons for the shift from a Democratic to a Republican Party. The Financial Times said that over the past two decades, Silicon Valley's culture has been defined as a progressive attitude aimed at eradicating social injustice, but the trend has changed in recent years. For example, Google has long made "don't do evil" part of its code of conduct, and the content was removed in 2018. Meta once encouraged employees to challenge management about company issues, but has restricted employees 'political speech since 2020.

The US media "Business Insider" said it obtained internal emails from Microsoft showing that the company dissolved its team dedicated to Diversity, Fairness and Inclusion (DEI) in early July this year. Last year, Google and Meta were exposed by the US media and were reducing the size of the DEI team. This is a further sign that technology giants are withdrawing diversity-based initiatives despite promises they made after the 2020 "black lives are life" protests and riots.

The reason behind this is that the Financial Times pointed out that Silicon Valley's division on immigration issues is becoming more and more serious. According to the Silicon Valley Index released by the U.S. non-profit organization Silicon Valley Ventures, foreign-born people account for 38.7% of the total population in Silicon Valley in 2021, which is much higher than the national figure (13.6%). The high proportion of immigrants complicates the political environment in Silicon Valley, making it difficult for people to converge in values and culture.

Against this background, the anti-awakening clarion call sounded by the Republican Party is not harsh in Silicon Valley, and even responds to some people's concerns. ("Woke" was originally an African-American slang term for opposing racial discrimination, which generally refers to being sober and vigilant against systemic racial discrimination. Today, the political and social connotations of the word "awakening" are gradually expanding, extending from racial inequality to social issues such as gender, transgender people, environmentalists, abortion, and sexual harassment.)

Musk has repeatedly claimed that the "Awakening Mind Virus" has affected the United States, accusing such ideas of causing the uncontrolled growth of illegal immigrants and leading to society's unwise acceptance of diversity, equality and inclusiveness. His authorized autobiography pointed out that this anti-awakening emotion was partly related to his eldest son Xavier's decision to change gender. Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, are still pushing for laws to promote diversity, which has become one of the factors that prompted him to accelerate his shift to Trump.

According to Reuters, in 2022, Xavier Alexander Musk, Musk's son from his first wife Jenna, filed an application with the court, announcing that he would change his gender to female and change his name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, and stressed that he "no longer wants to be connected with his biological father in any way." On July 15, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB1955, which prohibits school districts from notifying parents of students 'decisions to change their gender identity without their consent. On July 23, Musk received an appointment from the renowned psychologist Dr. Jordan B. In an exclusive interview with Peterson, he revealed that Xavier had suffered from gender anxiety and always believed that he was a girl, while he was "induced" to sign the relevant gender reassignment surgery documents amid incomplete information, confusion caused by the epidemic and fear that his child might commit suicide. "My son Xavier is dead. He died of the Awakening Spirit Virus." Musk said.

Betting in the technology industry

Silicon Valley elites thought Biden would be a moderate, but there was a government that actively regulated artificial intelligence and raised capital gains taxes to the highest level ever, which clearly contradicted their wishes, so some people chose to bet on Trump. It is also a gamble.

Historically, Trump intervened in technology as president, cracked down on TikTok, launched antitrust lawsuits against technology companies, accused social media platforms of political bias, and signed executive orders requiring regulators to formulate new regulations, stipulating that social media companies engaging in censorship or any political behavior no longer enjoy content exemptions. After the riots on Capitol Hill in January 2020, he created his own social platform because his social account was blocked to fight what he called the "tyranny" of science and technology companies.

As for Bitcoin, Trump's view has reversed. In 2021, he also called Bitcoin a "scam against the U.S. dollar," and recently he positioned himself as a cryptocurrency-friendly candidate and began accepting cryptocurrency donations this spring. Bitcoin prices soared immediately after Trump's assassination on July 13, and cryptocurrency investors increased their bets on Trump's victory.

"For more than a decade, the Republican Party has held an anti-technology stance, and this time the Republican Party has positioned Trump 2.0 as supporting innovation and corporate founders." Jason Calacanis, an American Internet entrepreneur and angel investor, wrote on X at the Republican National Convention.

Then we turn our attention to Trump's running mate Vance, who is regarded as a politician with close ties to Silicon Valley, backed by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel. But Vance was outspoken, saying he wanted to strengthen supervision of technology giants. Paradoxically, he believes that regulation of the AI industry should be relaxed. Vance's company, Naya Capital, has invested in dozens of emerging artificial intelligence companies. Moreover, the Republican National Committee released the "2024 Republican Platform" on July 8, which clearly stated that "Biden's executive order that hinders artificial intelligence innovation will be repealed."

As Vice President of the United States, Harris advocates regulation of the artificial intelligence industry like Biden, and her attitude is even clearer than Biden. She calls for thorough regulation rather than the industry's voluntary commitment. At the Artificial Intelligence Security Summit held in the UK last year, Harris said that in the absence of regulation and strong government supervision, some technology companies have chosen to put profits ahead of customer well-being, community safety and the stability of a democratic country.

It is worth mentioning that Harris was born in the Bay Area and served as the top prosecutor of San Francisco, the attorney general of California and the state's senator. He has a history of fighting with the technology industry. US media AXIOS analyzed that Harris has not expressed her opinion on antitrust and the splitting of technology giants, but she may not stop the ongoing technology antitrust investigations by the Department of Justice and the SEC, and is unlikely to change the leadership of these two institutions. The leadership and position in the field of technology is still worth waiting and seeing.

The wind direction in Silicon Valley may continue to change, but there is no doubt that this place, which gathers technological elites and huge investment wealth, has an increasingly obvious influence on American politics.