Elon Musk and the tech bros banked on Trump and lost. Humbled, humiliated: what will they do next? | Jonathan Liew

Why This Matters

Key context: <p>Democrats won seats on anti-datacentre tickets and Musk wasted nearly half a billion dollars. Big tech may be losing its grip, but it won’t go quietly</p><p>Photos That Precede Unfortunate Events: a couple of months back, Donald Trump hosted some of the world’s most powerful tech executives at the White House for a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/29/trump-ai-deal-tech-ceos-superintelligence">Super Intelligence luncheon</a>”, which by coincidence is also how my mum described her tuna sandwiches in a forlorn attempt to get me to eat them. Sitting either side of the president were Elon Musk, making a rare offline appearance in daylight hours, and Jensen Huang, the Nvidia chief executive carving out a precious slot in what we now know was an <em>extremely</em> busy schedule.</p><p>Over a delicious meal of microchips and rare-earth metals, the billionaires sketched out a utopian future of an AI industry unencumbered by regulation or safeguards, powered by their heroic strongman leader, a political genius effortlessly able to impose his will upon an entire nation. And perhaps it should have been apparent even at the time that these (mostly) men were putting their faith in a guy who had recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/16/algae-trump-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool">defeated by pond algae</a>. But as the drinks and the good times flowed, it was still possible to believe that the sun would never set on the thousand-year American superintelligence empire.</p><p>Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-live-events/2026/sep/22/the-guardians-year-in-review-2026">The Guardian’s year in review 2026</a>. On Tuesday 1 December 2026, join your favourite Guardian writers for an evening of candid conversations, witty remarks and surprises as we look back on the year-defining stories of 2026. With Zoe Williams, Lucy Mangan, Jonathan Liew, Heather Stewart, Pippa Crerar, John Crace and host, multi-award-winning comedian Suzi Ruffell. <br> Book tickets <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-live-events/2026/sep/22/the-guardians-year-in-review-2026">here</a> or at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-live-events/2026/sep/22/the-guardians-year-in-review-2026">guardian.live</a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/nov/09/elon-musk-tech-bros-donald-trump">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.