Trump’s tech allies face a revolt from within their own industry

Tech executives including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Tim Cook, and Alex Karp aligned themselves with Trump after his 2024 election victory, donating millions to his inauguration fund and securing favorable policies on AI regulation and datacenter permits. The Guardian reported that Musk made a rare daytime appearance at a White House "Super Intelligence luncheon" alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, where they envisioned an AI industry free from regulation.

The 2026 midterms delivered a sweeping rebuke. Democrats won seats campaigning against datacenter expansion, with 46 of 47 datacenter-related ballot measures defeated nationwide. In Texas, James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton — who Musk backed with $150 million — by promising a moratorium on datacenter development and pledging to "tax trillionaires out of existence." In Ohio, Sherrod Brown labeled his opponent Jon Husted "the face of datacentres." Gina Hinojosa unseated Texas Governor Greg Abbott despite being outspent nearly eight to one by big tech donors.

Markets reacted sharply. The Nasdaq fell more than 5.5 percent on Thursday as investors sold AI and chip stocks, wiping billions from the personal fortunes of tech leaders. An NBC exit poll found 56 percent of voters said datacenters and AI were a "crucial or major" factor in their vote, and more than three in four opposed a datacenter in their community.

Democrats, now controlling Congress, plan investigations. Senator Ed Markey warned "they are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we'll be printing," targeting contracts awarded to defense tech firms, manufacturing and mining companies, and entities tied to Donald Trump Jr. and Musk's Doge service. The Guardian noted Goldman Sachs told investors it expects "the datacentre issue to somewhat fade in importance and any moratoria on datacentre development to be short-lived."

The Irish Times detailed the extent of tech's courtship: Zuckerberg sent a letter his eight-year-old daughter wrote to Trump; Bezos sent a selfie with his fiancée and complained about the Washington Post; Cook presented Trump a glass disc on a 24-carat gold base. Palantir's Alex Karp, a one-time socialist who wrote his PhD on fascism's rhetoric, donated $1 million personally and $1 million corporately to Trump's inauguration, and Palantir worked with ICE on mass deportation efforts. Trump reportedly sneered to Musk about Zuckerberg and Bezos: "Think of where these guys were in 2016... They hated me. They were doing everything they could to knock me down. And look at them now." Musk replied: "First-class grovelling."

In the UK, the issue remains less polarized. The Guardian reported Labour's AI growth zones remove datacenter decisions from local councils, with ministers meeting only two community groups and no environmental organizations over two years while 38 senior officials took roles at AI companies. Reform UK received £72 million from two cryptocurrency billionaires.