Tech CEOs Bow Down to Their Democratic Overlords

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Jacob Helberg For years now, Palantir CEO Alex Karp has been cozying up to the Trump administration, from aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement through AI-powered surveillance tech and musing about legalizing war crimes to making unsavory comments about women and bragging that he frequently chats with “real Nazis.” Karp has been accused of going “full MAGA,” defending president Donald Trump by trying to argue that he isn’t a fascist. His company helped the so-called Department of Government Efficiency as it ripped apart federal government agencies. He has taken plenty of swipes at the Democratic party itself, accusing it of being “totally irresponsible,” while gloating about carrying out a “completely anti-woke” agenda. But now that a different wind is blowing in Washington after Democrats crushed Republicans in last week’s midterm elections, Karp is singing an entirely different tune. As Politico reports, Karp has seemingly realized that he will have to dramatically change the rhetoric to ward off increased scrutiny by lawmakers, who have made broad gestures toward holding Silicon Valley accountable once they take over control of Congress. During his interview with the publication, strikingly, he used the word “progressive” a whopping eight times. “I’ve been a Democrat my whole life,” Karp told Politico after spending years criticizing the left. “I grew up in a far left environment. I know more about being a progressive than almost anybody on the planet, and I absolutely believe Palantir — all of our products are essentially progressive.” Karp’s desperate attempts to cozy up to the left are symptomatic of a much greater shift following the midterms. The tech oligarchy is now faced with a strikingly political landscape. As the Washington Post reports, a growing group of tech leaders are plotting a major shift in their strategy. But that may be easier said than done, given how deeply entrenched Silicon Valley has become with the far right, from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk personally overseeing a catastrophic gutting of federal agencies as a “special government employee” to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman meeting with Trump both publicly behind the scenes to further the company’s interests. Many of these voices have been unusually quiet following last week’s elections, unlike Karp. But given how tech giants, including Google and Microsoft, are already making concessions to win over an American public that overwhelmingly opposes data centers, they’ll likely have to choose their words carefully. Major policy shifts are very much on the table after Congress changes hands, from a slowdown in AI development to more data center moratoriums and holding tech companies accountable for the environmental impact of their work. Trump may maintain the power to veto these measures — but who knows how long those remaining bastions of an administration that fell out of favor with the American people will last. More on tech CEOs: Trump Says It’s Fine for a CEO to Cheat on His Wife With an Alleged Spy