San Jose – Like many people in the tech industry, Jeremy Lions considered him a relatively non-political man.

He had been at the demonstrations up until now on the opening day of President Trump’s first term, when he joined fellow Google workers leaving the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google co-founders and its chief executives participated.

Last weekend was Lyon’s second protest against Trump, but it had a very different feeling.

The man who oversees the bull in downtown San Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who didn’t give him a full name because he was afraid of being identified by Trump supporters. Marcher was urged not to harass the drivers of Tesla vehicles (made by White House advisor Elon Musk’s company), who have moved from the Silicon Valley environmental futurist symbol to the Pro Trump icon. And there were no tech executives anywhere after several people joined Trump at the inauguration ceremony in January.

For the 54-year-old Lions, the change has said a lot about what has happened to Silicon Valley over the past quarter century, like the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics these days.

“One of the things I saw back then was getting money from nerdy utopia, moving fast, breaking things,” the Lions said.

Political gaps emerge

The political loyalty of the tech industry remains divided. But as some people in the Silicon Valley upper class have begun to shift politically appropriately, many of the industry’s workers remain liberal, yet increasingly tense and disillusioned. Their mood is in stark contrast to well-known technical leaders who embraced the ideology of conservative populist people.

“I think there’s a real gap between the leadership elite in Silicon Valley and its workforce,” said Anne Skeet, who helps run the centre studying technology industry ethics at Santa Clara University.

“The shift wasn’t for many people,” said Renee Siegel, former mayor of Mountain View and a longtime liberal activist in Silicon Valley. “It was a handful of people who attracted attention.”

The biggest example is Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and the CEO of the most famous electric vehicle company who took on the prominent role in cutting federal agencies in the Trump administration. Musk is joined by several tech billionaires, including David Sachs, an investor who helped raise funds for Trump’s campaign, became the White House artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency emperor and venture capitalist Mark Andrezen. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington.

Zuckerberg began to praise Trump after the then Candy Cate, who piloted him towards a local elections office during the Covid-19 emergency in 2020, threatening to jail him last summer. Zuckerberg also contributed $1 million to the President’s Inaugural Fund and co-hosted an inauguration reception for billionaire Republican donors.

Trump has filled his administration’s post with billionaires, and with his support from wealthy technical leaders, the then-president warned that President Biden was at risk of becoming an elite-controlled Oliver. During Trump’s first term, Silicon Valley and its leaders were a breakwater of resistance against Republicans, especially against immigration, given the industry’s pulling workforce from around the world.

Against the background, thousands of people attended a recent rally in downtown San Jose to protest Trump and Musk’s actions.

Silicon Valley is democratically leaning, but has a rare mix

Santa Clara County, which makes up most of Silicon Valley, coincided with California’s shift by shaking Trump by 8% points in the November election against Democrat Kamala Harris. Even on that swing, the county remains a democratic hub with 68% to 28% in Harris.

“We’re still on the belly of the beast,” said Dave Johnson, the new executive director of Santa Clara GOP. “If the lake is frozen, there’s a bit of a sparkle on top. I’m not saying there’s a crack in the ice.”

Tani has long been a Democrat, but there is an extraordinary political mix. Combined with a general dislike of being too involved in Washington’s business, a contradictory mix of libertarian individualism, Bay Area activism, and beliefs about science’s ability to solve world problems.

That continues even as the tech industry changes.

The tech boom was driven by crude startups that cater to workers’ dreams of changing the world for the better. Google’s motto was “Don’t Be Evil.” This is a phrase that was removed from the Code of Conduct by 2018, when other companies such as Facebook and Instagram owned Meta grew into multinational giants. Companies have been laying off in recent years, and there was a shock for the industry that seemed poised for unlimited growth a while ago.

Entrepreneurs once dreamed of building a world-changing startup, said Jan English Ruek, a professor at San Jose State University who has studied Silicon Valley culture for over 20 years.

“Now,” she said. “If you’re part of a startup, you want you to be absorbed in a profitable way.”

Dissatisfaction about industry direction

Even before some prominent technical leaders shifted to Trump, there was growing frustration among parts of the industry beyond that direction. Idarose Sylvester runs a business that promotes a Silicon Valley-style approach to entrepreneurs from other countries.

“I’m feeling sick now in my stomach,” she said.

Sylvester was already disillusioned with the growing inequality in the valley and the environmental costs of all the energy needed to power cryptocurrency, AI, and data centers. She took part in the protest against Trump in 2017, but after losing the 2020 election to Biden, she felt the energy was gone.

“We saw a lot of people get out of politics after Biden won, and it all felt fine,” Sylvester said. “It wasn’t all okay.”

It’s even worse now, she said. She helped organize one of several demonstrations across Silicon Valley last weekend during the day of protests against the new administration.

At first glance, what’s in downtown San Jose might have been the typical anti-Trump protest everywhere. A large group of people, mostly middle-aged, were carrying signs against Trump and Musk, chanting against the oligarchs.

But it was clearly a Silicon Valley crowd, shaking from Trump’s challenges to the country’s checking and balancing system, as well as the actions of the top executives in the valley.

“All money has been shifting to wealthy people, and that’s what I’m afraid of,” said Diane Wood, who works at a startup. “Unfortunately, you have Zuckerberg and Elon Mars of the world who are taking over it.

“Just come here and everyone says they’ll turn off your phone’s face recognition,” Wood added. “We’re all scared.”

Kamal Ali, who works at AI, said she felt betrayed by the shift.

“The trust is broken. Many employees are very upset about what’s going on,” he said. “It’s going to be different forever.”

Riccardi writes for the Associated Press. Los Angeles AP author Sarah Parvini and video journalist Haven Daly contributed to this report.