What does Big Tech's alliance with Donald Trump mean for the US?
The alliance between Big Tech and the new US president Donald Trump is causing concern


As Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, only his family stood between him and the tech moguls, among them the three richest men in the world – Tesla’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Not since Dwight Eisenhower’s post-war military-industrial complex has there been “such unity of purpose between political and economic power”, says Jeremy Warner in The Telegraph. As Joe Biden warned in his farewell address, “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms”.
In a show of intent, on the day of his inauguration, Trump revoked a 2023 executive order from Biden that sought to reduce the risks of AI. The day after, he announced Stargate, a $500 billion private sector investment in AI infrastructure, says Natalie Sherman on the BBC. The explosion of AI has created a massive demand for data centres, along with water and power. Stargate, which will create an estimated 100,000 jobs over the next four years, is a joint venture by OpenAI, Oracle, Japan’s SoftBank and MGX, a tech investment arm of the UAE government.
Trump is not unshackling Big Tech and dangling the promise of “lucrative government contracts” to feed the Bezos/Musk “assault on outer space” in return for nothing, says Warner. For him, the new tech oligarchy is “the means by which he pursues his own place in history as the saviour of the Western world, pushing back on an ascendant China and cementing America’s position as the world’s unrivalled superpower”. Maintaining and enhancing the US lead in AI, robotics, space, weaponry and bioscience is “central” to his “expansionary ambitions”.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
There are “jarring echoes” between the Russian oligarchs who “made out like bandits” in the post-Soviet 1990s and what is happening today, says John Thornhill in the Financial Times. Musk – who may yet end up as owner of TikTok’s US business – has already enjoyed a “stunning return” on the $250 million he spent helping to re-elect Donald Trump. Tesla’s stock market value surged by more than $300 billion following Trump’s victory. And Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos already have huge influence via X, Facebook and The Washington Post.
But the “technoligarchs” are far less influential than feared, says The Economist. Firstly, Amazon, Meta and Tesla may account for 10% of the value of all listed US stocks, but their economic contribution is just 1.8% of GDP. To put that in perspective, in 2004 a couple of dozen oligarchs were responsible for around two-thirds of Russian output, while in Hungary “chums” of strongman PM Viktor Orban oversee an estimated 20%-30% of the economy.
Secondly, public opinion also matters, and sections of the Maga base “already loathe” the tech billionaires. Thirdly, unlike John D. Rockerfeller, who “wielded near-total control over a critical economic input”, they cannot hold the US economy to ransom.
Finally, their interests are often competing (eg, space, social media, advertising). In short, America’s economy is simply too huge, “unwieldy and dynamic to petrify into an actual oligarchy”.
Nevertheless, the risks of more personal, transactional relationships between business and government are real, say Filipe Campante and Raymond Fisman in The New York Times. “Political connections, more than economic efficiency” may now have a “bigger hand in policymaking”. The damage will be amplified as businesses increasingly divert effort and resources into cultivating such connections. When power is consolidated in such a way, “accountability becomes much harder, and the quality of governance will suffer”.
This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.
Sign up for MoneyWeek's newsletters
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.
Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.
-
Tesla earnings: live preview and analysis
Can the electric car-maker overcome a big deliveries miss ahead of earnings?
By Dan McEvoy
-
Can I shield my ISAs from inheritance tax?
Many investors and savers will be wondering if there’s anything they can do to protect their ISAs from inheritance tax, especially as pensions will become liable for the levy from April 2027. We reveal the options available to ISA customers
By Ruth Emery
-
Trump’s tariffs: what is he thinking and how should the UK respond?
Every right-thinking person knows that free trade is a surer route to the wealth of nations than protectionism. So, what is Trump thinking?
By Stuart Watkins
-
Why stagflation now seems like America's "optimistic scenario"
Investors have gone into tariff shock, and stagflation could now be the optimistic scenario for the US economy.
By Alex Rankine
-
Will Trump force the Fed to lower interest rates?
Opinion Markets are ignoring the risk that Donald Trump forces the central bank into reckless interest rate cuts
By Cris Sholto Heaton
-
What is the Mar-a-Lago Accord and why is it getting attention from Wall Street?
On Wall Street, there is talk that Trump's tariffs aim to make the world’s leaders come crawling to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence
By Alex Rankine
-
Is now a good time to invest in self-driving cars?
Despite repeated unwelcome delays, we could be on the verge of an inflection point for self-driving car technology. How can you gain exposure?
By Dan McEvoy
-
Should you limit exposure to US tech stocks?
An end to the AI boom would shake both US funds and global trackers. Here’s one way to trim exposure to US tech stocks
By Cris Sholto Heaton
-
Is the AI boom another dotcom bubble?
25 years on from the dotcom bubble bursting, is it time for investors to consider the sustainability of the AI boom in the stock market?
By Dan McEvoy
-
No need to run from the robots: Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu talks to MoneyWeek
Interview Daron Acemoglu, Nobel Prize winner and professor at MIT tells Matthew Partridge why the gains from AI have been overhyped
By Dr Matthew Partridge