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Big Tech under Trump 2.0
The tech landscape has shifted dramatically since Donald Trump’s first term in office: AI is booming, Meta and Google are fighting antitrust battles, and Elon Musk turned Twitter into “X.” In anticipation of Trump 2.0, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have announced they’ll prioritize free speech over content moderation and fact-checking. So what’s in store for the tech industry in 2025? On GZERO World, Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson joins Ian Bremmer on GZERO World to discuss recent shifts at Big Tech companies and the intersection of technology, media, and politics. What does the tech industry stand to gain–or lose–from another Trump presidency? Will Elon Musk have a positive impact on the future of US tech policy? And how will things like the proliferation of bots and the fragmentation of social media affect political discourse online?
“Social media platforms, in general, are shifting to the right, and they are less important than they were five years ago. They’re bifurcated, dispersed, conversations happen across platforms,” Thompson explains, “As communities split, there will be less and less one town square where people discuss issues of consequence.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
What does Big Tech want from Trump?
What does Big Tech want from Donald Trump? Trump had a contentious relationship with the industry in his first administration. But in 2025, Silicon Valley is recalibrating. On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks at the parade of tech leaders who have visited with Trump since his election win, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and moves like Meta’s recent announcement it would scrap its fact-checking program, all to get on President-elect Trump’s good side as he prepares to return to office. So what does the industry stand to gain—or lose—from a second Trump term? Loosening AI and crypto regulation and a business-friendly White House are high on the wish list. However, blanket tariffs on China and Trump's grudge against Section 230 could mean that, despite the optimism, Trump 2.0 may not lead to the big windfall Big Tech hopes for.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
The OpenAi logo is displayed on a mobile screen in this photo illustration.
OpenAI offers its vision to Washington
The 15-page document lays out OpenAI’s vision for how America can maintain its global lead in AI development while staying ahead of China. OpenAI proposes national investment in AI infrastructure, such as new data centers, chip manufacturing facilities, and power plants. It also suggests “AI economic zones” — regions with streamlined permitting processes for AI.
OpenAI is also kicking off its “Innovating for America” campaign, a national tour in which company representatives will push for infrastructure investments — with visits to Washington, DC, as well as Alabama, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New York.
OpenAI has already started getting closer to the Trump administration with co-founder and CEO Sam Altman donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, something many tech companies and CEOs have done. Now it’s making specific demands of Trump’s Washington, which OpenAI hopes could clear red tape and boost AI investment.A low-angle view of a video camera.
Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers
4: Social media creators are selling their unused video footage to AI companies hungry for content to train their generative AI models. OpenAI, Google, and others are reportedly paying up to $4 a minute to license this footage.
300 million: The private equity giant Blackstone invested $300 million in an AI data company called DDN, valuing the firm at $5 billion. DDN provides specialized data analytics for businesses developing and running AI models, helping them process and store large amounts of data.
32 million: The defense tech startup Overland AI raised $32 million in venture capital as the Pentagon ramps up demand for artificial intelligence. The company’s OverWatch software specializes in “ground autonomy” to help unmanned vehicles navigate off-road terrains.
10,000: Adobe’s new AI suite, called Firefly, can perform edits on 10,000 images at once. For example, it can resize tons of pictures or replace their backgrounds in one fell swoop.The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library is pictured in Harvard yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., December 7, 2023
Hard Numbers: Harvard’s books, A whistleblower’s tragic end, Broadcom’s boom, Getting brainworms
1 million: Harvard Law School's Library Innovation Lab has launched the Institutional Data Initiative to make public domain data from Harvard and other institutions available for training AI models, including 1 million books scanned at Harvard.
26: A former OpenAI researcher-turned-whistleblower named Suchir Balaji was found dead in his apartment from an appartent suicide. Balaji, who was only 26, left OpenAI earlier this year and went public with concerns that the company had violated US copyright laws in training ChatGPT.
1 trillion: The chipmaker Broadcom is now a $1 trillion company after its stock surged 20% on Dec. 13 following positive news about its AI business. The company told investors in its quarterly earnings call that its AI chip business was rapidly growing, as a result boosting Broadcom to the ninth-most-valuable company in the world.
250 million: The startup Liquid AI is closing in on a new $250 million fundraising round that would value it at $2.3 billion. Fascinatingly, the company is building “liquid foundation models” that, instead of being modeled off of neural connections in the human brain, are based off of the inner workings of worm brains.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump looks on as he delivers remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 16, 2024.
AI companies splash the cash around for Trump’s inauguration fund
Sam Altman is a longtime Democratic donor, but now he’s sending $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Altman, the cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, followed Amazon and Meta, which each donated $1 million too. Altman said, “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman wrote in a statement.
The AI search engine Perplexity joined in the donation spree, offering $1 million of its own money to the president-elect. Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said he wants the company to “be a good partner to the administration.” Tech companies have made major donations in the past to presidential inaugural committees, but never in such a unanimous way. Plus, it’s a stark difference from 2021, when Joe Bidenreportedly did not accept donations from tech companies.
With these donations, tech companies are playing nice with Trump, who has been openly hostile to the industry in the past. Altman and Co. want Trump to know that they’re ready to embrace him if he embraces artificial intelligence. Not only are pricey federal contracts up for grabs, but — most importantly — AI companies desperately want to avoid stringent regulation, even if they sometimes say otherwise.Sam Altman is seen on a mobile device screen next to an OpenAI logo in this illustration.
Can OpenAI reach 1 billion users?
How will it woo them? The startup is set to develop AI “agents” that can complete tasks for users rather than simply chat with them and launch its own search engine while further integrating ChatGPT with Apple products.
OpenAI, which Microsoft backs to the tune of $13 billion, wants to secure its financial future. (Microsoft has been building up its own internal AI capabilities and now considers OpenAI a “competitor.”) One way for OpenAI to grow is by adjusting its subscription revenue model. The company is reportedly considering expanding into advertising as a potential revenue model and hiring ad execs from top tech companies. The AI search engine Perplexity has already integrated ads into its business.
But it is also considering lowering its long-term costs by building data centers across the United States, something cofounder and CEO Sam Altman reportedly discussed with President Joe Biden at the White House in September. Chris Lehane, head of global policy at OpenAI, told the Financial Times that the company needs “chips, data and energy” to meet its expansion goals. Altman has previously expressed interest in raising trillions of dollars for a chip startup, though that hasn’t yet amounted to anything. Altman has, however, invested in Oklo, a nuclear power startup, that could power energy-intensive data centers.
Infrastructure investments could be key to a sustainable future as it grows — the company is reportedly losing billions a year training and deploying its models. But as Silicon Valley startups often go, profitability — or breaking even — could come long after achieving a user base in the billions.
An illustration of the ChatGPT logo on a phone screen, along with the US flag and court gavel.
OpenAI scores a copyright win in court
A federal judge in Manhattan last Thursday threw out a lawsuit filed by the news outlets Raw Story and AlterNet against OpenAI, alleging that the artificial intelligence startup behind ChatGPT used its articles improperly to train large language models.
Colleen McMahon, a Clinton-appointed judge in the Southern District of New York, said the plaintiffs weren’t able to demonstrate harm, though she dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning they could file a new suit in the future and try once again to establish legal standing.
The lawsuit, filed in February, didn’t allege that OpenAI engaged in copyright infringement. That was the allegation made by other news organizations including the New York Times, which sued OpenAI in December 2023 in an ongoing suit. Instead, it claimed that OpenAI violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by removing authors’ names and other identifying information.
It’s a small win for OpenAI as it faces a litany of copyright lawsuits from people and companies eager to prove in court that one of the richest and buzziest companies in the world got rich by stealing other people’s copyrighted work.