‘A decisive victory’: Tech leaders react to Donald Trump’s US election win

Big Tech bosses came out on social media to congratulate president-elect Donald Trump on his election victory. 

Shortly after the results came in, billionaire Elon Musk said on his social media platform X that the American people “gave Donald Trump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” and that the “future is going to be so [fire emoji]”. 

Musk is a clear Trump ally and was one of the biggest financial donors to his campaign, giving just under $75 million (€69.7 million) through America PAC, a super political action committee that Musk created for the campaign. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads that Trump’s win was a “decisive victory” and that there are “great opportunities ahead of us as a country”. 

The comment comes despite a contentious relationship between the two, with Zuckerberg placing a two-year ban on Trump’s accounts after the insurrection in Washington on January 6, 2021. 

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said on X that he’s looking forward to working with Trump to “make sure the United States continues to lead with and be fueled by ingenuity, innovation, and creativity”. 

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, called Trump’s victory the start of a “golden age of American innovation,” and said that he is committed to working with the president-elect’s administration. 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, called Trump’s win an “extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” on X. 

“No nation has bigger opportunities,” Bezos continued. “Wishing Donald Trump all success in leading the America that we love”. 

Bezos, also the owner of US newspaper The Washington Post, decided to end presidential endorsements in the newspaper, causing one-third of the company’s board members to step down. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also wished Trump “huge success,” in the job, and in a follow up post said that “it is critically important that the US maintains its lead in developing AI with democratic values”. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadellasaid he’s looking forward to working with Trump’s administration  to “drive innovation forward that creates new growth and opportunity for the United States and the world”. 

‘America has a lot of work to do’

Not everyone in the US tech world celebrated Trump’s win. 

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman wrote in a lengthy post on X that he acknowledges a Trump win “in a country where we enjoy relatively unfettered rights to vote,” and called for unity among Americans. 

“I love America, and I hope that the next four years will be our strongest yet,” Hoffman, who was a high-profile supporter of the Harris campaign, said. 

Melinda Gates, philanthropist and former multimedia product developer at Microsoft, said on X that the election was a “discouraging day” for many people in the US and around the world. 

“Make no mistake, nothing ends here,” Gates wrote. “Advocates, activists, and champions for americans of all backgrounds and identities have prepared for this moment”. 

Gates said she is “committed” to being part of the “heroic” work that wil take place in state legislatures, court systems and frontline services. 

Katie Stanton, an American executive with previous leadership roles at Twitter, Google and Yahoo, said on X that “America has alot of work to do”. 

Stanton called Kamala Harris’s concession speech “beautiful, gracious and inspiring,” while encouraging a peaceful transition of power. “I’m hopeful we can heal, organize and build a better future,” Stanton wrote. 

Stanton was one of 875 members of VCsForKamala, a group of venture capitalists, founders and tech leaders who pledged to vote for the Democratic candidate in this election.