Tech layoffs and political backlash fueled a shift of Silicon Valley elites toward Trump in 2022–2023

Between 2019 and 2022, major tech firms expanded aggressively, with Amazon and Facebook more than doubling their headcounts by 92% and 93%, respectively. Microsoft added nearly 80,000 employees and Google brought on over 60,000 during the same period, as demand for technical skills surged and companies recruited workers without always having defined roles for them.

The hiring boom was enabled by over a decade of loose monetary policy, including near-zero interest rates that made capital cheap and venture funding abundant. This environment allowed tech firms to expand rapidly, offering high salaries, remote work flexibility, and other perks that elevated workers’ bargaining power.

In 2022, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates from near zero to roughly 5.5% in 10 consecutive hikes over 15 months, cooling the economy. The S&P 500 fell 19.4%, and tech valuations plummeted, with Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft losing nearly $4 trillion in combined market value. Facebook’s value dropped by two-thirds and Amazon’s by half.

As growth stalled, tech firms shifted from expansion to austerity, implementing mass layoffs and budget cuts. Executives and investors attributed the downturn to inefficiencies, with Silicon Valley investor Keith Rabois calling some roles 'fake work' and Andreessen Horowitz’s David Ulevitch suggesting up to half of Google’s white-collar workforce was not contributing meaningful labor.

Tech CEOs echoed these criticisms. Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned of productivity concerns, and Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah criticized workers for laziness in internal communications. These narratives justified layoffs and cost-cutting, reversing the industry’s prior emphasis on growth and worker perks.

The combination of layoffs, diminished labor power, and liberal political rhetoric critical of Silicon Valley contributed to a shift among some tech billionaires and executives toward political figures like Donald Trump, according to the article’s analysis.