Prominent Tech leaders who had a contentious relationship with President Trump during his first term are now bending to his policies. This was evident at Trump’s inauguration, as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Apple CEO Tim Cook had better seats than the incoming cabinet members.

Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince did not attend the inauguration but added there has been “kind of a war on tech” that has crippled the industry. He said, “The tech industry is very much like one of the US battleships. It is an incredibly powerful force for the United States and around the rest of the world. I think if we actually start investing in tech, and not just the big companies, but startups, little tech, all of the different organizations out there, that’s a huge advantage that the US has.”

Why Tech Leaders Are Cozying Up to Trump

Tech leaders are cozying up to Trump, visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago estate and donating to his campaign. Trump quipped, “The first term, everybody was fighting me.” Now, “In this term, everyone wants to be my friend. I don’t know; my personality must have changed or something.”

One of the significant reasons tech CEOs are flocking to Trump is that Congress is expected to consider social media safeguards for children and regulations on artificial intelligence among its tech-related oversight. Though Zuckerberg was the first tech CEO to dine with Trump, the most prominent person in his inner circle is Elon Musk. The world’s richest man put aside his differences with Trump to emerge as one of his most trusted advisors.

Matthew Prince

The tech veteran told Yahoo Finance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “I do think that in many of these cases, these are companies that had something they had to fix. They had problems and potential risks out there. And I think they were kind of coming and saying, listen, we’re willing to talk to you. We’re willing to engage at some level.”

Cybersecurity and Cryptocurrency are performing well under the new administration with pro-crypto policies. Cloudflare has outperformed its peer group, rising about 28% since Election Day. The positive numbers are attributed to many factors surrounding the new administration. 

Investment experts say Trump is friendly toward the cybersecurity business model. He signed off on the National Cyber Strategy in September 2018. The strategy aimed to encourage government and private investment in cybersecurity infrastructure. It also sought to bolster domestic innovation in the sector.

There are also groundbreaking trends in AI with potentially looser regulations around dealmaking under the Trump administration that could spur profits and valuations on cybersecurity stocks. Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives said, “ We believe the cyber security sector will have a robust 2025 and should be one of the strongest sub-sectors with our view cyber security could be up 30%+ over the next year led by accelerated cloud and AI growth along with M&A we expect to be very active in this tech area.” 

Risky Digital Presence

According to the World Economic Forum, as the world evolves into a more digital-first landscape, it is getting riskier daily. With incoming risk, it is necessary to bolster cybersecurity measures at companies and governments. The report continued, “The prevailing turmoil has affected the perception of risks, with one in three CEOs citing cyber espionage and loss of sensitive information/intellectual property theft as their top concern, while 45% of cyber leaders are concerned about disruption of operations and business processes.” 

Trump’s pro-crypto and AI policy guarantees a significant investment in digital currency and stocks, and the world’s most prominent CEOs are rallying behind the president.