For years, it’s been a two-man race for the coveted title of “The World’s Richest Man” between tech titans Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. But in 2025, that moniker bears little import relative to the power of the President of the United States of America. So if you’re among the class of tech billionaires not in the running for the title of ‘richest man’, and you didn’t just stage the wildest political comeback in a century, your next best move is being power-adjacent.
That appears to be the tact embraced by industry elites in Silicon Valley just moments after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. A flood of donations came roaring in from the typically liberal-leaning west coast. More than $170M rushed into the coffers for his inauguration fund, with tech executives writing hefty checks to bankroll the festivities, and to secure their seat behind the dais.
Million dollar donations came from Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft exec Bill Gates, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were among the laundry list of Silicon Valley’s biggest names to make it rain on the incoming administration, helping Trump eclipse any predecessor’s inauguration fund easily by $100M. Inaugural ceremony aside, no tech bro is any match for the total donations coming from one single donor–Elon Musk, who gave the Trump campaign roughly $277M.
This mind-blowing amount is likely what’s earned Musk the unofficial title of ‘First Bro’, securing him not only a front row seat to the inauguration but even his own office in the West Wing. It’s no secret that Musk has Trump’s ear on everything from social issues, to trade and tariffs, to foreign policy and wars, leading many in Washington to view Musk as the most influential man in the world. And the rest of Silicon Valley has taken note.
Before January 2025
One by one, these titans of industry made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago for private dinner soirees hosted by the soon-to-be-again POTUS, Donald Trump. The question of who wined-and-dined who is up for debate but one thing’s clear; Everybody wants a seat at the table because lucrative government contracts are up for grabs when you’re in the good graces of President Trump.
Take Jeff Bezos, for example. The Amazon founder made his way to Florida in mid-December to join the president-elect for dinner. During Trump’s first-term, the pair had a rocky relationship, given Bezos also owns The Washington Post–which Trump has previously derided as a liberal rag–but notably in the 2024 election cycle, WaPo strayed from tradition and did not endorse any candidate. The Washington Post editorial board historically (and usually) endorses the Democratic candidate. For Beltway insiders and watchers, such as myself, this was the first indicator that WaPo, despite its favorable coverage of the Biden-Harris administration, actually believed that Trump would win the election. At the very least, perhaps Bezos and the Board thought it’d be a toss-up. So they hedged their bets and backed nobody.
Bill Gates recently revealed he spent some three hours at the dinner table with Mr Trump and incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in hush-hush fashion around the holidays. Though the exact date of the event is unclear, Gates told media outlets that he was quite “impressed” by the meeting and called the dinner “intriguing” as the group held a wide-ranging discussion varying from vaccines to HIV, and other global health issues that The Gates Foundation aims to tackle. This dinner, however, took place before Trump returned to office and immediately withdrew the US from the W.H.O.. Gates expressed disappointment with Trump’s withdrawal decision saying he hopes President Trump would walk it back.
During Trump’s first term in office, Gates had been a vocal critic of Trump
During Trump’s first term in office, Gates had been a vocal critic of Trump, particularly in the areas of global health and science. He once chided Trump at a public event in 2018 when he recounted to the audience that during one of their private meetings, Trump confused HIV with HPV, suggesting he wasn’t smart in the traditional sense. Anecdotes such as this painted Trump in an unflattering light but when coupled with Gates’ $50 million dollar donation to the Kamala Harris campaign–we can glean that the Microsoft founder’s about-face is strictly transactional as a means to achieve his philanthropy’s objectives.
Then there are the social media moguls. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg was perhaps the first from Silicon Valley to rap at the Mar-a-Lago doors, meeting with the president-elect on November 27, just weeks after Trump’s historic win. Exact details of the dinner were not disclosed but a Meta spokesperson told press that its focus was “an important time for the future of American innovation.” Shortly after this meeting, Zuck released a video statement about restructuring Facebook and Instagram’s terms of service, and the dismantling of Meta’s fact-checker program. The Facebook founder called the 2024 presidential election a “cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” in the video–going on to say his platforms would now favor less restrictive content moderation practices.
On Dec.16 – TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew dropped by for a bite to discuss ByteDance–the Chinese parent company of TikTok. The wildly popular social media app was on the chopping block after a bipartisan bill was signed into law by Joe Biden in April 2024, saying that unless the Chinese-owned shares in the company were sold to an American company, the app would no longer be available for use in the US–citing undefined national security concerns. Mr Chew’s visit with Trump sparked confusion, as it was Donald Trump himself who initiated ban-threats during his first term as president back in 2020. The law signed by Biden was set to go into effect on January 19, 2025–just a day before Trump was to be sworn in for his second term.
Chew’s dinner date with Trump proved fruitful, managing to score both a 90 day delay before any legal action is taken on TikTok and a coveted seat to Trump’s historic second inauguration. Though Chew did not (and legally could not) donate to Trump’s campaign due to federal laws prohibiting foreign nationals from doing so, he did donate $50,000 to one of Donald Trump’s inaugural parties held in Washington. Trump has since warmed to TikTok after it proved to be an important tool for his 2024 campaign.
After the Inauguration
We could go on and on about tech and industry oligarchs who lined up to make nice with Donald Trump after historically bad blood shared between Washington and Silicon Valley but I think you get the picture. Unlike Trump’s 2016 win where there was no love lost between them–this time, resistance was futile.
Tech leaders saw Elon Musk’s brewing bromance with Trump and while not saying it out loud–and not to be outdone–determined they had to get on POTUS 47’s radar because of the billions of dollars in contracts at stake, after Musk promulgated the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) idea. And what’s more efficient than having computers, robots, and AI take over the jobs in government traditionally performed by humans? All the tech companies offer tech-solutions in some form or fashion.
For social media, have them up-rank algorithms of government-sponsored messages. This is the new PSA model with immediate, on-demand, reach right in the user’s hand. Microsoft? The US government already operates on PCs, uses Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. Gates will certainly have other offerings to push as technology advances. You see where I’m going with this? That’s on top of the nearly one trillion dollar budget expected to be allocated to the Pentagon this coming fiscal year. That’s the jackpot of contracts to score: The DOD. Just this week, Google reversed its position on allowing use of their technology for military purposes. No surprise, since its CEO Sundar Pichai was among the executive list of million dollar donors. Elon Musk? Well, he’s got Starlink, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), all which already have cushy USG deals. But Jeff Bezos has been nipping at Musk’s heels with Blue Origin, making the billionaire space race one for NASA contracts, really.
So have all the tech titans really done a 180 on their political views or positions? Probably not. Have all the rich people turned MAGA? Nope. But they have a vested interest in the godfather of MAGA’s position of power which they can exploit by whispering a few sweet nothings into his ear. And all those donations to Trump’s inauguration? In Washington, donations are investments. The answer is always in the money trail. Follow it and you’ll find the truth.
Manila Chan is the founder of Slanted Media and an internationally recognized TV news anchor. Her work spans across all platforms; print, radio, television, streaming, and podcasting. She is passionate about US foreign policy and the Asian-American experience. Manila’s career has taken her around the globe, interviewing world and industry leaders, and sharing one-of-a-kind stories from the ground.
