The results of the 2024 presidential election in the USA have been announced: Donald Trump, representing the Republican Party, once again ascended to the pinnacle of power in the United States.

The 2024 US election has transcended political boundaries.

Silicon Valley, known for innovation and free thinking, witnessed an unprecedented split in this election wave.

In the two major camps, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ and the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, supported former President Donald Trump, while Bill Gates and some Silicon Valley tech figures undoubtedly continued to stand with current Vice President Kamala Harris, representing the Democratic Party.

The fear of different government policies, different visions of the future, have led these once united tech giants to draw battle lines. Their positions are no longer just about voter preferences, but involve real interests - ideology and interests have never been so deeply intertwined.

Behind the 'picking sides', how will the fate gears of practitioners and the tech industry itself begin to turn?

01 Musk's 'burning bridges'

In 2024, the strongest supporter of Trump is none other than Musk, who can be said to offer his people, his money, and his efforts.

In the Musk-backed 'Super PAC', Musk has invested over 0.1 billion USD to help Trump campaign.

These funds are used for ground campaign activities in various swing states, allowing volunteers and employees to go door-to-door, persuade voters face-to-face, and be used for various Trump advertising campaigns.

In addition to speaking at campaign rallies, to expand his influence, Musk also organized the 'Million Dollar Prize', claiming that as long as you sign a petition for freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, you will have a chance to win 1 million USD. The winner must be a registered voter in a swing state.

According to US law, any means of exchanging material benefits for voter behavior may be suspected of illegal. However, Musk and his legal team seem to have found a way to circumvent it in legal theory and continue to do so without error.

Not long ago, the Philadelphia district attorney sued Musk and related parties, asking the state court to stop the 'illegal raffle activity,' but Musk's lawyers countered by revealing that this activity does not actually belong to a raffle because the winners are not 'randomly selected,' but chosen based on their experiences, based on whether they are 'suitable' to be public spokespeople for Musk's political action committee.

In addition to spending real money, Musk has also turned the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that he now controls into a propaganda base, constantly retweeting posts with a pro-Trump tendency, as well as anti-Harris and Democratic Party posts. Some users even suspect and accuse that X is full of pro-Trump content.

On X, Musk has also attacked his tech peers on election issues.

On November 5th, Musk also retweeted multiple posts on X accusing Google of only displaying content related to voting for Harris when searching 'where to vote.' In addition, Musk also retweeted a post that accused ChatGPT of being 'biased' and favoring Harris.

At a campaign rally, Musk also stated that he felt it was important to acquire Twitter because 'almost all social media companies, Google, and everyone else are controlled by left-wing activists.' 'They suspended the account of a sitting president, which is outrageous.'

As a form of recognition or reward, Trump has promised to include Musk in the 'Washington Government Efficiency Committee,' with many jokingly suggesting that this is to have Musk take responsibility for 'layoffs' in the government since Musk once laid off a significant number of Twitter employees.

"I see this election as a fork in the road of destiny," Musk declared. "If Trump doesn't win, I think this will be the last election in the USA."

Musk elevated this election to the level of human destiny, also because the outcome is closely tied to his own fate.

On a personal level, Musk's eldest son underwent gender transition, leading to the estrangement between them. Musk attributed this to the "woke culture" promoted by the Democratic Party and viewed it as a dangerous "mental virus".

As a tech giant, Musk's companies like SpaceX rely on contracts with the USA federal government. Under the Biden administration's regulations, Tesla's business faced many constraints, especially in policies related to autonomous driving technology and the electric vehicle industry. In contrast, Trump's attitude towards corporate regulation was more lenient.

Explicit supporters of Trump also include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, A16z founder Marc Andreessen, and former Sequoia Capital CEO Douglas Leone. In addition, many well-known figures in the crypto industry openly support Trump, with many not being clearly affiliated with a party, but rather seeking to elect politicians who can support cryptos.

Previously, the Biden administration has advocated for stronger regulation of the tech industry, including taking responsibility for data privacy, tech ethics, and social equity. The tech elites mentioned above, however, hope for Trump's "deregulation" approach towards the tech industry, as well as his stance on protecting innovation and interests of American private enterprises.

The capitulating Bezos and Zuckerberg of the 02.

It can be said that Musk and others' choice for Trump may stem from disappointment in the Democratic Party and the expectation of a lenient policy towards the tech industry. But $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ The choice of founders Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta might have been out of fear of Trump.

In this US election, The Washington Post controlled by Bezos was originally planning to support Harris, but decided at the last minute to stop endorsing any candidate, breaking a long-standing tradition, raising doubts about the media's independence. It is said that about 0.2 million people canceled their subscriptions to the newspaper as a result, and several columnists and editors resigned in protest.

Bezos acquired The Washington Post in 2013, arguing that the newspaper's endorsement of a president would not affect the election results, but instead would only encourage the belief that the media has a 'bias'.

Nevertheless, there are still doubts from the outside that Bezos was intimidated by Trump and dared not endorse Harris. Because on the day before this decision, executives from Bezos's Blue Origin company met with Trump.

Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg also seems to be afraid of Trump.

After all, Trump had openly threatened to jail Zuckerberg, and Trump has always been critical of Zuckerberg and $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ Closing his account several years ago still weighs heavily on him. According to the new york times, Zuckerberg had two phone calls with Trump this year, trying to repair their tense relationship.

Trump publicly claimed that Zuckerberg told him, 'This time, the elections will not be in favor of the Democrats.' However, Meta later denied this, stating that Zuckerberg will not support any candidate this year in an attempt to maintain a non-partisan stance and stay away from politics.

In addition, other executives who have not declared their political stance and have not publicly taken sides include apple's CEO Tim Cook, and nvidia's CEO Huang Renxun.

For example, when asked by the media about related issues, Huang Renxun replied, 'I have not been in contact with any candidate.'

"I have not been in contact with any candidate."

03 The resolute Gates and Altman

On the other hand, many technology industry professionals have remained loyal to the traditional stance, explicitly supporting the Democratic Party and candidate Harris.

$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates directly donated over 50 million US dollars to a non-profit organization supporting Harris.

Former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg also supports Harris, calling her a 'strong advocate for abortion rights' and the 'strongest candidate' in the race.

LinkedIn co-founder and prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Reid Hoffman is also a supporter of Harris. At the same time, he also persuaded $Netflix (NFLX.US)$ Co-founder Reed Hastings donated over 7 million US dollars to Harris' presidential campaign, the largest contribution he has made to a single candidate to date.

Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway, who has invested in Google, Facebook, and Airbnb, openly calls for 'the tech community to unite to defeat Trump,' and the way to defeat Trump is to support Harris.

Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has not publicly made any political statements, he has records of donating to Democratic party politicians over the past few years. According to OpenSecrets, a tracker of U.S. campaign donations, Sam Altman donated $5,600 to Harris in 2019 when Harris was running for the Democratic Party's nomination in the primary, as well as donating to other Democratic party members such as Biden.

According to the American news weekly, since 2013, Sam Altman has donated over $1 million to Democratic party politicians. While many of his donations have gone to local politicians in California, he has also donated to Democratic party organizations nationwide, including their operations in major swing states.

Furthermore, in addition to these tech giants, employees of tech companies are also involved in voting and donating. According to OpenSecrets data, employees and executives of large tech companies tend to support the Democratic party and Harris, which is also the traditional inclination in Silicon Valley.

In contrast to boss Musk's political beliefs, donations from employees of Musk's various companies mainly flow to Harris: Tesla employees' donations to Harris are double those to Trump, SpaceX employees are five times more, and employees of X are more than 26 times.

For traditional American elections, highly educated voters typically lean towards the Democratic party. Election analysis from Johns Hopkins University shows that voters with college degrees are more supportive of Democratic party candidates. Data from the Pew Research Center also indicates that among voters with a bachelor's degree or higher, over half support the Democratic party, while among voters without a college degree, the proportion supporting the Republican party is higher.

This is also partly why mainstream Silicon Valley tech professionals choose the Democratic party. Highly educated groups with elite tendencies tend to believe that their values are more 'progressive,' and the education they receive often includes multicultural and social justice concepts. The values, attitudes, scientific research funding, immigration support, public education investment, and other policies of the Democratic party also align with their needs.

Despite this, due to dissatisfaction with the Democratic party's regulatory efforts in recent years regarding antitrust and data privacy protection, as well as concerns about U.S. technological advantages and extreme political correctness, combined with the protectionist and tax reduction appeals of the Republican party, some tech elites in Silicon Valley have chosen to diverge from the Democratic party in 2024.

Although jokingly referred to as the largest show in the USA, the elections and the subsequent 4-year leadership team will undoubtedly have a profound impact on all aspects of society. The technology industry, which has long been an important component, will also inevitably be severely affected by policy, especially in the current situation of dramatic changes.

The once blue Silicon Valley tech community, gradually parting ways, has long been a foregone conclusion, only now truly becoming apparent.

Editor/Somer