Silicon Valley shocked over Trump
As "Bloomberg" reports, the US tech industry provided 114 times more budget for Clinton than for Trump. However, the Silicon Valley investments didn't help.
"I don't even know how to turn on a computer. That's why I'm not a technology investor," President Trump reportedly addressed the IT issue that is important to him.
No one can really believe that Trump will be the new "Commander in Chief". No one knows what Trump actually stands for? Last June, Hillary Clinton published a detailed agenda for technology policy, according to Bloomberg: targeted tax cuts and a promise to continue Obama's policies on net neutrality and a national commission on digital security and encryption.
"And Trump?" writes inside-it.ch. "He criticized Apple when the company failed to help the FBI crack an iPhone. In the fight against Islamists, he plans to call Bill Gates to shut down the web if necessary, according to 'Forbes.'" He said his vision for strengthening cybersecurity included an "immediate review of all U.S. cyber defenses and vulnerabilities, including critical infrastructure."
IT investors at a crossroads?
Many tech greats felt compelled to get involved in politics: Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founder donated $20 million to Trump opponents. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman spoke out publicly against Trump. HPE CEO and Republican Meg Whitman supported Clinton, according to 'Fortune' even hoping to get a cabinet post.
Billionaire investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel sided with candidate Trump as a notable supporter from the ICT scene. Trump spoke out against transferring the internet domain name system - as strongly supported by the tech industry - to an independent non-profit group.
He claimed that they wanted to hand over control of the Internet to the UN. He has so far rejected the announced takeover of media group Time Warner by telephone provider AT&T. According to 'The Register', it is likely to become more difficult for US companies under Trump to bring in computer scientists from abroad.
Where are the IT drivers headed?
At the moment, only one thing is certain: many IT-related issues are dominated by great uncertainty and lack of clarity. That's why big companies like Google are relocating to the safe haven of Switzerland or even to low-wage countries until the wheat is separated from the chaff in the IT scene. If Trump wants to bring jobs back to the US from low-wage countries, is he really concerned about iPhone production?
"I don't even know how to turn on a computer. That's why I'm not a technology investor." he allegedly once addressed the infrastructure issue, which is important to him, in a more differentiated way. Nevertheless, as announced, he wants to tax the foreign profits of Google, IBM, Apple & Co. and this after a grace period at the same tax rate that he demands for domestic profits.
The U.S. tech industry is now hoping that the new U.S. president will not take any rash political steps against Silicon Valley.
