Big Tech Hates Trump

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel may be backing Donald Trump, and even speaking at the Republican National Convention. But many other technology leaders have come out strongly opposed to a Trump presidency.

On Thursday morning, 145 technology CEOs, billionaire investors, and upcoming entrepreneurs from some of the largest companies and startups in Silicon Valley signed an open letter that condemned Trump as "a disaster for innovation." The list includes Slack's Stewart Butterfield, IAC's Barry Diller, Qualcomm's Irwin Jacobs, Tumblr's David Karp, Box's Aaron Levie, Facebook's Dustin Moskovitz, Reddit's Alexis Ohanian, eBay's Pierre Omidyar, Zynga's Mark Pincus, Medium's Ev Williams, Apple's Steve Wozniak, and venture capitalists Vinod Khosla and Chris Sacca.

Each person who signed the letter did so in their "personal capacity" rather than as representing their respective organizations. But it's a clear industry-wide rebuke to the presidential candidate for a political party generally known as pro-business. 52 of the signatories are listed as CEOs and 83 as founders or co-founders.

No current employees of Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, or Google signed the letter, although a number of alumni did. Mark Zuckerberg, along with other upper echelon CEOs, didn't join in, but his sister Arielle Zuckerberg, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, did sign.

The letter supports "progressive immigration policies," media freedom, and "an optimistic vision for a more inclusive country."

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We believe in an inclusive country that fosters opportunity, creativity and a level playing field. Donald Trump does not. He campaigns on anger, bigotry, fear of new ideas and new people, and a fundamental belief that America is weak and in decline. We have listened to Donald Trump over the past year and we have concluded: Trump would be a disaster for innovation. His vision stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy — and that provide the foundation for innovation and growth.

Let’s start with the human talent that drives innovation forward. We believe that America’s diversity is our strength. Great ideas come from all parts of society, and we should champion that broad-based creative potential. We also believe that progressive immigration policies help us attract and retain some of the brightest minds on earth — scientists, entrepreneurs, and creators. In fact, 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Donald Trump, meanwhile, traffics in ethnic and racial stereotypes, repeatedly insults women, and is openly hostile to immigration. He has promised a wall, mass deportations, and profiling.

We also believe in the free and open exchange of ideas, including over the Internet, as a seed from which innovation springs. Donald Trump proposes “shutting down” parts of the Internet as a security strategy — demonstrating both poor judgment and ignorance about how technology works. His penchant to censor extends to revoking press credentials and threatening to punish media platforms that criticize him.

Finally, we believe that government plays an important role in the technology economy by investing in infrastructure, education and scientific research. Donald Trump articulates few policies beyond erratic and contradictory pronouncements. His reckless disregard for our legal and political institutions threatens to upend what attracts companies to start and scale in America. He risks distorting markets, reducing exports, and slowing job creation.