Big Tech’s second act with Trump

Hi everyone, it’s Ellen in San Francisco. In response to Trump’s return to the White House, is the tech industry going to spring again into [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( [by Ellen Huet]( Hi everyone, it’s Ellen in San Francisco. In response to Trump’s return to the White House, is the tech industry going to spring again into #resistance or is Trumpism now an established part of Silicon Valley culture? But first... Three things you need to know today: • Server maker Super Mico may face a $1.7 billion bond repayment [if it’s delisted]( • Australia will ban social media for kids under 16 to help protect [their mental health]( • Online travel companies Airbnb and Expedia signal an upbeat [holiday season ahead]( Tech’s second act with Trump In early 2017, after Donald Trump became president for the first time, the tech industry mobilized quickly to resist some of his anti-liberal policies. A week into his term, Trump announced an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US — and tech employees and leaders jumped into action. Thousands of Alphabet Inc. workers [protested]( the ban, and Alphabet leaders Sergey Brin and [Sundar Pichai](bbg://people/profile/15004624), both immigrants, spoke at the rally. Meta Platforms Inc. [gave]( its workers time off to attend pro-immigrant protests. Alphabet, Meta, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — usually major competitors — [coordinated]( on how best to voice opposition to Trump’s policies. “Apple would not exist without immigration,” Chief Executive Officer [Tim Cook](bbg://people/profile/14014370) said at the time. “This is a huge issue for us. … We stand up, we don’t sit in silence.” Tech pushed back against Trump in other ways in the early years. In 2017, Intel Corp.’s then-CEO [resigned]( from a government council seat after Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” comments about protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. After the president withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords, Alphabet and Meta pledged to continue to follow them anyway; tech companies also challenged Trump on his efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or Dreamers, immigration policy. Employees held sway too. In 2018, Alphabet workers successfully pressured their company to [withdraw]( from Project Maven, a secret government program to use artificial intelligence to analyze military drone imagery. Now, things in the Valley feel different. This time around, many tech leaders and venture capitalists still vocally opposed Trump, but being a Trump supporter no longer marks someone as a pariah. In fact, taking a loud bet on him in 2024 was a way to [grab]( contrarian attention. Elon Musk’s outsized support through political donations and public appearances was the most notable of all. And the once-and-future president’s victory on Tuesday makes his Silicon Valley supporters even more emboldened. Eight years after the 2016 election, it’s unclear what appetite for resistance remains. On Wednesday morning, a procession of tech CEOs — from [Amazon]( [OpenAI]( [Alphabet]( [Microsoft]( [Meta]( and [Apple]( — all lined up to digitally kiss the ring. They each posted unnervingly similar messages, congratulating Trump on his victory and pledging to work together to boost American innovation. (Did they all coordinate this on a secret CEO group chat?) Both the anti- and pro-Trump camps see themselves as channeling long-standing values of the tech industry. Anti-Trumpers in tech say they’re supporting rational thinking, liberal and democratic norms, and immigration. Meanwhile, pro-Trumpers have embraced the president-elect as a symbol of technological acceleration, progress and American dynamism, the kind of leader who will loosen the government’s grip and let the tech industry build fast. Even the amorphous idea of “founder mode” has been used to describe Trump’s tendency to shrug off the political establishment norms in order to do what he thinks is best. (Silicon Valley has always liked to think of itself as a scrappy rebel  even when it’s actually popular and powerful.) Though Silicon Valley remains divided, right now it feels like it’s tilting in a different direction.—[Ellen Huet](mailto:ehuet4@bloomberg.net) The big story Media and telecom executives in the US say a second Trump presidency may be good for their industries, which are [undergoing dramatic technological changes](. A new administration may reduce the strict oversight of the past four years as well as give approval to more mergers. One to watch [Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey joins Bloomberg Technology to discuss how his defense technology startup and others will fare when Donald Trump returns to the White House.]( Get fully charged Taiwan needs to spend more money on advancing chip technology if it intends to keep its global leadership, a [TSMC executive says](. Nvidia added a former NASA space center director [to its board](. Chinese social media sites buzzed with admiration for Donald Trump’s comeback in the [US presidential election](. 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