Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed he was surprised by Silicon Valley’s shift to the right during an interview published Thursday.
“I always thought of Silicon Valley as being left of center,” Gates told the New York Times. “The fact that now there is a significant right-of-center group is a surprise to me.”
Gates, who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, met with President Donald Trump after he won and said the president was receptive to the issues he brought up.
He added, “I will engage this administration just like I did the first Trump administration as best I can.”
Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed he was surprised by Silicon Valley’s shift to the right. (Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images) ( Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
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The Times reported that Gates gave $50 million to Future Forward, the “principle outside funding group” that supported Harris.
“Incredible things happened because of sharing information on the internet,” Gates said, before addressing Facebook and Twitter’s roles in society. “You see ills that I have to say I did not predict.”
Gates spoke to the Wall Street Journal about his meeting with the president, and said he left the meeting impressed.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation,” Gates told WSJ. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up.”
Gates spoke to the Wall Street Journal about his meeting with the president, and said he left the meeting impressed. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The big tech CEO presence at Trump’s inauguration surprised members of the press, as MSNBC host Rachel Maddow questioned, “How is this happening? Why are people with tons of money up on the dais with Cabinet nominees and family members?”
Apple CEO Tim Cook was seated next to Trump’s pick for Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos, and Meta, donated a million dollars to Trump’s inaugural events.
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Vice President JD Vance said during an interview on Sunday that big tech was still on notice.
“We believe fundamentally that Big Tech does have too much power, and there are two ways they can go about this. They can either respect Americans’ constitutional rights — they can stop engaging in censorship, and if they don’t, you can be absolutely sure that Donald Trump’s leadership is not going to look too kindly on them,” Vance told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan.
Brennan pressed Vance on whether they still planned on breaking up big tech.
