With the election of Trump as the next President of the United States, policy towards the technology industry will take a new direction. For some companies this is good news, for others not so much.

The curtain fell on the American presidential election on Wednesday. After months of unprecedented political soap opera, Donald Trump (Republican Party) ultimately won by a large margin over Kamala Harris (Democratic Party). The USA is preparing for Trump’s second term in office.

The elections were also followed with great interest in Silicon Valley. The coming weeks will show what the tech industry can expect in the coming years. Is the government going soft or tough on the tech giants? For many companies, it will depend on what position they hold with the president.

Less blue

An interesting observation from the New York Times is that Silicon Valley made this election much less “blue” than usual. When Trump was first elected president in 2016, many influential figures spoke out openly against him. This time, tech bosses are sticking with congratulations, whether sincere or not, on social media. With Elon Musk at the helm, there were even vocal ambassadors for Trump in the technology industry.

The tech bosses seem to realize that it is better to be in good standing with Donald Trump. The incoming president is a man who does not forget easily and who often allows personal revenge to play a role in his politics. Just ask AWS, which missed out on the controversial JEDI cloud contract in 2019. AWS was convinced that Trump himself had pushed for the contract to be awarded to Microsoft because he and then-Amazon boss Jeff Bezos were not best friends.

Mark Zuckerberg in particular has good reasons for spreading the news: Trump has already threatened to send Zuckerberg to prison. Without being allowed to pass Start first, we suspect. With Trump, you can never be sure whether he’s serious or not, but the tech industry seems to be taking its chances.

In Silicon Valley, these elections were significantly less “blue” than usual.

Chips go in the trash

Which course Trump will take depends largely on who takes which position. One thing already seems certain: the American CHIPS Act is unlikely to survive long under the Trump administration. The Chips Act was pushed through by the Biden administration to attract chip investors to America with high subsidies. This led Samsung and TSMC, among others, to decide to significantly expand their infrastructure in the USA. It is possible that Biden will distribute the promised subsidies before he leaves office.

Trump, in his characteristic, explicit style, has already made it clear that he is not a big fan of the Chips Act. He doesn’t believe chipmakers should get money to build factories in the US. On the contrary, he believes that imposing high import tariffs on technology that comes from outside the US is a more effective tool.

“They put tariffs on so high that they build their factories for free,” Trump said in a recent interview. Who knows, perhaps this more aggressive approach will provide the European Union with an opportunity to present itself as a promised land for chip companies?

(De)regulation of AI

There is no danger that the Chips Act is the only Biden law that will not survive Trump’s impeachment. In October 2023, the White House approved this Implementing regulation on the safe and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence Well, the American version of the AI ​​Act, so to speak. A new bill to tighten these guidelines was met with a lot of criticism from the industry. Although Trump has called AI a “dangerous technology” in the past, his right-hand man JD Vance appears to be a big believer in AI.

Vance sees AI as a means of staying one step ahead of the great economic enemy China. On the one hand, this means that the means to make things difficult for China will certainly not diminish. But Vance also believes the domestic AI industry should be boosted. From this perspective, regulation is more likely to stand in the way of innovation. The less regulation, the better the new government’s approach could be.

Antitrust law: soft or hard hand?

That sounds like good news for the tech giants from Silicon Valley, even if they shouldn’t expect too many gifts apart from possible softer AI regulation. Trump and Vance have loudly condemned the “consolidation of power” of big tech companies. Many antitrust cases currently underway were initiated during Trump’s first term in office.

This also applies to the case against Google, in which the company was recently described as a “monopolist”. Google is not doing particularly well with the right-wing conservative corner. Vice President Vance has repeatedly accused Google of bias against conservatism, although without much evidence. One of the consequences of the recent ruling is that Google could be split up, and the new rulers certainly don’t seem to mind. It’s going to be a tough four years for Google.

One company that is somewhat surprisingly hoping for a presidential pardon is TikTok. During his first term in office, Trump harshly criticized TikTok. He even wanted to ban the app if TikTok did not cut ties with its (Chinese) parent company ByteDance. That didn’t happen, and Trump even promised to save TikTok on his own social media platform Truth Social. While neighboring Canada kicks out TikTok, the US is opening the door again.

Musk seizes power

Most tech CEOs have previously stayed out of the election, but one man made his preference very clear. Elon Musk became the most recognizable face in Trump’s campaign and regularly took the stage at election rallies. It wasn’t just physical and vocal support: Musk was a generous sponsor of the campaign and even organized a “million-dollar raffle” to win voters for Trump.

The Bromance between Trump and Musk is not unconditional. Musk has regularly made his dislike of Biden clear over the past four years. It appears Trump’s agitation won’t hurt Musk: There may even be a spot reserved for him on the board.

This could make Musk one of the most influential men in the global technology industry. Musk will be able to influence who is regulated and who is not, and to what extent. A luxury position for Musk, who is not interested in regulating his activities in any way. He can also influence government policies regarding AI, social media and other areas where he has more than significant influence.

It will soon become clear which of these predictions will come true and which will not. The technology industry knows what it stands for. Or not, now that Trump will rule again with all his whims. The only thing that is certain is that it won’t be a boring four years.

By openly supporting Trump, Musk could become one of the most influential men in the global technology industry.