Parmy Olson, Columnist

JD Vance Wants to Make Silicon Valley Great Again

His desire to curb Big Tech dominance won’t have as much impact as his animosity toward tech’s social justice movements.

July 17, 2024 at 5:18 PM UTC

By Parmy Olson

Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, she is author of “Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World.”

JD Vance speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018. — JD Vance speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018.
Photographer: Steve Jennings/Getty Images North America

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Deep inside their glass-walled corridors, some of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capitalists are smiling to themselves about Donald Trump’s new running mate, JD Vance.

Resentment over a public backlash against tech combined with disillusionment over President Joe Biden have contributed to an ideological shift to the right in Silicon Valley over the last few years, driven by a number of venture capitalists. If Trump wins and if his new vice president sticks to his beliefs on antitrust, his appointment could finally challenge the dominance of Big Tech firms. That would be a welcome change. Less welcome, however, would be the way he is seeking to erode the progressive values that have underpinned the tech world for years.