Silicon Valley’s wealthiest tech executives have reportedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending aimed at boosting Republican candidates ahead of the US midterm elections, as a Democratic blue wave swept the party to a historic victory, ending the GOP’s control of both chambers of Congress.
In a report on Thursday, the Financial Times said that American voters had pushed back against Big Tech's growing political influence while expressing concerns about artificial intelligence.
“Tech executives spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but their efforts proved to be nothing more than a paper tiger. Americans rejected their corruptive influence and any candidate associated with them,” Sacha Haworth, head of the Tech Oversight Project, told the British newspaper.
Moreover, a political source, who helped “coordinate” campaign spending by major tech figures, told the FT that “the money didn’t work.”
According to an NBC exit poll cited by the report, “A majority of US voters cited AI data centers as a crucial or major factor in determining their vote,” while voter anger over inflation and the Iran war further undermined Republican candidates.
The poll further described the resulting shift toward Democrats as “monolithic.”
Among the biggest Republican donors was Elon Musk, who spent more than $470 million on campaigns, nearly half of it in support of Texas Republican Ken Paxton, who lost to Democrat James Talarico.
Andreessen-Horowitz’s co-founders Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz also contributed over $90 million, while Gemini cryptocurrency exchange founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss donated more than $5 million.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife gave $25 million to the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. and another $25 million to Leading the Future, a pro-AI political action committee that also received $50 million from Andreessen-Horowitz.
Shortly before voting began, Musk also urged supporters in a now-deleted X post: “Vote red today!”
The midterm results dealt a major political blow to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, with several traditionally Republican states switching allegiance to Democrats, most notably Texas and Arkansas.
On Wednesday, US Vice President JD Vance admitted that the war of aggression against Iran -- launched by a US-Israeli military coalition on February 28 -- was a key factor behind the Republican Party’s crushing defeat in the midterm elections.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote on X.
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