PALO ALTO, Calif. — Meet the New Bosses in Big Tech — same as the Old Bosses in oil, banking, and railroads.
“There is a French phrase, ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’ that means the more things change the more they stay the same,” said John East, a legend in the semiconductor industry and author of “Silicon Valley: The Way I Saw It.”
“It’s always been about money here – it’s just that the money now is a lot bigger,” he said over lunch in Mountain View, Calif.
In a year of multibillion-dollar deals involving many of the valley’s bold-faced names in their pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) riches, the point was driven uncomfortably home this week. In what some are calling the Benioff brouhaha, Salesforce Inc. Marc Benioff drew the ire of locals and a national audience after he agreed with President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard on the streets of San Francisco.
The power grab, which preceded a New York Times report on Salesforce’s bid for an ICE deal to quickly hire 10,000 new agents and enhancing deportation operations using Agentforce, underscores what has become a familiar painful refrain in these parts. After decades of journey and discovery that resulted in technology that changed the habits and lives of most Americans, the tech industry in the San Francisco Bay Area has grown too rich, too powerful, and too big. Summarized in one word, it is teeming with greed, no matter the political, social, and economic consequences.
The picture that emerges is one of unprecedented concentration — of capital, political influence, and power — in relatively few hands. At the same time, the federal government is no longer just regulating tech companies but rather directly investing billions and partnering with them on massive infrastructure and manufacturing initiatives like Stargate, and a sizable investment in Intel Corp.
It’s all prompted a new nickname to underline the region’s outsized power. Some are calling it MANGO (Microsoft, Anthropic, NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI). Before that, it was the Magnificent 7, and prior to that, there was FANG (Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google).
Despite Silicon Valley’s record $14.3 trillion market capitalization, prosperity remains starkly unequal. The wealthiest 10% of households hold 70% of the region’s collective wealth. The income gap has widened sharply, growing twice as fast in Silicon Valley as it has statewide or nationally since 2010.
Silicon Valley’s Grip on Power
Technology executives have ascended to unprecedented levels of political influence, wielding the dual power of billion-dollar campaign contributions and guaranteed access to the nation’s highest leaders. In the early months of 2025, this dynamic has become unmistakably clear.
The financial footprint of tech’s political ambitions is undeniable. From 2020 through 2024, major technology firms spent more than $260 million on federal lobbying efforts, with 2024 alone accounting for $61.5 million, up 13% from the previous year and 46% higher than in 2020.
The Kids Online Safety Act offers a striking illustration of this influence in action. The bill sailed through the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan backing, passing 91–3. Support among the American public was nearly as unanimous, with nearly nine in 10 Americans favoring the measure. Yet it died in the House after Meta Platforms Inc. and other tech giants launched aggressive lobbying campaigns against it.
The wealth concentration in Silicon Valley extends far beyond any single bill. In 2024, the artificial intelligence (AI) sector attracted more than $100 billion, about one-third of all global venture capital investment, an 80% surge from the previous year. Silicon Valley startups captured $90 billion of that total, representing 57% of worldwide venture funding.
That capital, however, is concentrating rapidly. The top 30 venture capital firms now control 75% of all U.S. venture capital fundraising, with just nine leading firms capturing half the total raised. This consolidation has profound implications for which startups gain momentum.
Perhaps more striking is a visible political shift among venture capitalists themselves. Republican-aligned investors like Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have funneled millions into GOP-aligned PACs in 2025. Their Democratic counterparts, who had donated substantially to the Democratic ticket in 2024, have so far contributed nothing to national politics this year — a notable reversal that may signal changing allegiances in the tech world.
The Stargate Moment
The intersection of tech power and government policy crystallized in January 2025 when President Trump announced the Stargate Project, calling it “the largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history.” Flanked by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Trump unveiled plans for a $500 billion investment in U.S. infrastructure and the creation of more than 100,000 jobs.
The venture represents a public-private partnership structured with SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and investment firm MGX as initial equity funders, with SoftBank holding financial responsibility and OpenAI handling operations. The government is mobilizing behind the project through executive action. Trump declared an energy emergency, citing an “inadequate and intermittent energy supply,” and pledged to use executive orders to facilitate infrastructure development.
The timing carries symbolic weight: Trump announced Stargate just one day after repealing President Biden’s 2023 AI executive order, which had sought to regulate the development of advanced AI models.
The Trump administration’s commitment to AI infrastructure extends beyond Stargate. In November 2024, Intel and the Biden-Harris Administration agreed to $7.86 billion in direct federal funding for commercial semiconductor manufacturing under the CHIPS and Science Act. The chipmaker received its first tranche of $1.1 billion in federal grants at year’s end, followed by another $1.1 billion in January 2025, with $5.66 billion remaining to be dispersed.
Most recently, the government escalated its financial commitment further. The U.S. government agreed to acquire a 9.9% equity stake in Intel, bringing total federal investment in the company to $11.1 billion through remaining CHIPS Act grants and Secure Enclave program funding.
Indeed, the money grab is alive and has never been livelier in high-tech’s mecca. With unfathomable riches available through the AI revolution, and an industry-friendly government more than eager to get a piece of the action, greed and power have reached new heights in the cradle of garage startups, computing labs, and VC firms. It’s no coincidence that those on the outside looking in like less and less about the current state of Silicon Valley.
Where it’s all headed is not a good place.
