Elon Musk amplifies conservative voices in liberal Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley, a stronghold of Democratic politics, is experiencing a shift as more voices, seemingly emboldened by Elon Musk, have openly declared their support for Donald Trump.

The South African-born tech mogul is leading this change, committing nearly $100 million to the Republican's presidential campaign, while leveraging his X social media platform and personally campaigning in crucial swing states to aid Trump's White House bid.

"Musk is revered by a lot of people in Silicon Valley," said tech entrepreneur and author Vivek Wadhwa, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University.

"More people on the right are just saying 'Look, we're fed up, we're going to vote for Trump,' and they're doing it fearlessly and are impacting the opinion of others."

Musk's embrace of Trump has amplified ideological currents that have long existed quietly in the California tech scene, best represented today by Peter Thiel, a conservative investor who worked with Musk at PayPal 25 years ago.

PayPal veteran David Sacks, a college friend of Thiel's, co-hosted a high-profile fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco in June and spoke at the Republicans' nominating convention.

Nick Pinkston, founder and CEO of Volition, noted that many conservative voices, led by Thiel, have always been present, guided by libertarian principles.

"Some of those people were already conservative, and now they're given more license to speak," he said.

According to Pinkston, who closely follows tech-world politics, this group has grown disillusioned with today's version of democracy and sees Trump as a ticket to less government and lower taxes.

'It's gone too far'

Trump secured only 34 percent of California's vote in 2020 -- and just 12.7 percent in San Francisco -- but recent developments have given voice to anti-progressive sentiment.

A perceived, if statistically nonexistent, rise in crime, and the city's strict Covid-19 regulations, which led to the temporary closure of companies like Tesla, drew bitter criticism, with Republicans slamming San Francisco as out of control.

"San Francisco is far more left than the rest of the country, and many people think it's gone too far," said Sheel Mohnot, a Fintech investor. "We have a lot of problems -- crime, homelessness, et cetera -- and people are just wanting to pivot hard against that."

These Silicon Valley conservatives argue that progressive policies focusing on diversity, inclusion and LGBTQ+ rights have come at the expense of addressing crime and taxes, and advancing innovation.

"People are fed up with the extremism of the proclaimed progressives, how they have made San Francisco a complete mess and chased out companies such as Tesla," Wadhwa said.

Pinkston insisted that most tech workers remain relatively apolitical but vote Democratic in presidential elections.

"The typical worker is a centrist Democrat," he said, and not part of a group "that spends a lot of time thinking about women, for sure."

Abortion rights, protected in California but abolished or sharply limited in many American states, are a major theme of Democrat Kamala Harris's presidential campaign.

For Lawrence Quill, professor of political theory at San Jose State University, the start-ups of the early days of innovation have grown up.

"In the 1970s and '80s, technology companies...thought of themselves as revolutionaries, good guys."

"That simplistic view of morality is hard to maintain in a global marketplace," he said, adding, "Consider the issues surrounding Apple and Google doing business in China."

Many techies still lay low

While some billionaire tech leaders, notably including Musk, have been outspoken, most are avoiding political involvement.

Trump's relationship with this group has been contentious. During his presidency, he frequently criticized Amazon, allegedly denying the company a major defense contract due to his animosity toward founder Jeff Bezos.

Bezos recently prohibited the Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing any presidential candidate, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly initiated informal discussions with Trump.

Other tech giants are similarly distancing themselves from politics and trying not to offend Trump.

Mark Zuckerberg has stopped election-related philanthropy, while his company Meta has modified its algorithms to reduce political content.

Trump claims to have received calls from Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

But as their bosses lay low, opponents to Musk and Trump still outnumber their fans among "techies."

"Objectively, 'you' are the biggest threat to democracy in America today," Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun replied to a Musk post last week.

"You are an oligarch who bought himself a huge megaphone so he could use it to support a would-be dictator, and to discredit...all the institutions necessary for a functioning democracy," he added.