WIRED links tech downturn and layoffs to billionaires’ shift towards Trump

Silicon Valley’s shift towards Donald Trump’s political coalition was fuelled in part by the technology sector’s post-pandemic downturn, mass layoffs and a broader backlash against Big Tech, according to a WIRED excerpt from Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry.

The excerpt argues that pandemic demand and cheap capital drove rapid expansion between 2019 and 2022, strengthening technology workers’ bargaining power. Rising inflation and Federal Reserve interest-rate increases then exposed the sector’s reliance on cheap money, prompting companies to cut costs and embrace austerity.

Nearly 93,000 US-based technology workers were reportedly laid off in 2022, followed by more than 191,000 in 2023. The authors argue that job cuts were repeatedly rewarded by investors, including through share-price increases, even after technology earnings and broader economic conditions improved.

The political environment also shifted. Progressive politicians including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticised Big Tech’s market power and labour practices, while the Biden administration pursued antitrust action, cryptocurrency oversight and scrutiny of artificial intelligence.

The excerpt says some technology billionaires, including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, became alienated by regulatory pressure, perceived loss of political access and worker activism over military contracts, fossil-fuel partnerships and workplace conditions. The authors argue that these factors helped push parts of Silicon Valley towards Trump’s anti-woke, populist coalition.

The causal explanation and the breadth of the alleged political shift are the authors’ interpretation. The material does not establish that all technology billionaires or workers moved towards Trump, nor does it independently verify the reported layoff totals.