What will Donald Trump’s second term in the White House mean for the US tech industry grappling with artificial intelligence hysteria?
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is certain to play a central role in Trump’s Silicon Valley policies after endorsing the Republican presidential campaign.
“A star is born: Elon!”. Trump gave a long shout-out to the Tesla and SpaceX boss during his victory speech after Tuesday’s election.
Musk is expected to play a key role in the White House, where he is likely to have influence over regulation of technology, including matters related to his companies Tesla, SpaceX and X Platform (formerly Twitter).
On Musk’s side, there will likely be a group of tech “accelerationists,” members of Silicon Valley’s more liberal right wing, who want innovation to be fostered by the government.
In contrast to their initial caution during Trump’s first term, tech giants were quick to applaud the president-elect on his victory.
“Many congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wrote on Twitter.
Bezos had already signaled his changing position by directing The Washington Post, which he owns, to refrain from endorsing Kamala Harris — a move widely seen as potential friction with the withdrawal of the Trump administration. Considered as an attempt to escape.
Apple boss Tim Cook sent his congratulations, as well as Harris’s tech billionaire supporter Mark Cuban, who said Trump won a “fair and impartial” election.
Meta supremo Mark Zuckerberg also congratulated Trump and has spent the past months carefully trying to rebuild a relationship with the president-elect, often holding the Facebook founder to account for his acrimony.
On policy, tech titans will be united to see the departure of Federal Trade Commission chief Lina Khan, who has pursued a policy of slowing the unrestricted expansion of her tech empire.
An early target of Trump’s attention may be President Joe Biden’s executive order on regulating artificial intelligence.
The order sets voluntary standards for AI safety, emphasizes privacy protections, fights bias and provides guidelines on how AI can be deployed by the government.
It also established the US AI Safety Institute (AISI), a body to study risks in AI systems.
The order can be modified or struck down, with Trump sympathetic to the argument that innovation should not be stifled by regulations.
crypto craze
Trump will certainly make it easier for cryptocurrencies to flourish after tech giants in the industry donated generously to his campaign.
The crypto market boomed following his win, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high above $75,000.
Trump referred to cryptocurrencies as a scam during his presidency, but he has since radically changed his position, even launching his own crypto product.
He will seek to oust Gary Gensler, the crypto-skeptic head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has become a despicable cog in the sector.
TikTok’s troubled fortunes may be changing as Trump voices opposition to Biden-backed legislation ordering the popular app to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance.
TikTok has until January to find a buyer or face a ban, but Trump opposes it, saying it would only embolden Instagram and Facebook, which he believes treats him unfairly. Are.
Trump has also expressed his intention to eliminate the CHIPS Act, replacing Biden’s manufacturing subsidies with aggressive tariffs designed to force companies to manufacture in the US.
Industry analyst Jack Gould cautioned against this approach, saying that “tariffs alone will not work to bring back US chip production… the tariff is a penalty, while the CHIPS Act is an incentive.”
The threat of a trade war with China is also looming.
Apple’s stock price did not see the same massive surge on Wall Street after Trump’s victory as it did with questions over its reliance on Chinese factories to make iPhones.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
