Tech billionaires face tricky political waters after Democratic sweep

Eli Tan, Erin Griffith and Theodore SchleiferTech billionaires backed Trump and pushed for looser AI and business rules, but the Democratic sweep has weakened their political power.Democrats won by attacking tech elites, data centres and AI job fears, and some winners promised to challenge billionaires and big corporations.The election may slow AI and data centre plans, hurt tech stocks, and bring subpoenas or investigations, though California’s proposed billionaire tax is likely to fail.SAN FRANCISCO – In September, US President Donald Trump hosted a White House luncheon to discuss artificial intelligence, flanked by some of the world’s wealthiest tech executives: Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and others. They had the President’s ear to pitch an AI future uninhibited by regulation or guardrails.For two years, it had been that easy to get what they wanted. Tech billionaires and their companies donated money to Trump’s favoured causes, including the White House ballroom. The moguls posed for photos and lavished him with praise and gifts. Amazon heavily promoted a movie about Melania Trump.Get unlimited access to exclusive stories and incisive insights from the ST newsroom