Maybe the moral renewal of America depends on the moral renewal of Silicon Valley.
For 40 years I have been a proud valley resident. But I am increasingly appalled by how our tech leaders are shaping our future.
And, more recently, embarrassed for the valley. The links to Jeffrey Epstein. The trips to Mar-a-Lago. The donation of millions for monuments to President Trump’s ego. The failure to use power and technology to call out the cruelty and lies that are the backbone of the current administration.
But that pales in comparison to the extent to which tech leaders are violating the basic social contract that built Silicon Valley.
Affordable housing? Income inequality? Artificial intelligence’s impact on the job market and society? Social media’s negative influence on future generations?
Not their problem.
Public backlash
Silicon Valley became what it is today because Congress threw massive amounts of funding into research and development at the region’s top universities, producing innovative entrepreneurs and a highly skilled workforce that is the envy of the world.
I don’t begrudge tech leaders their elite status. A part of the formula that made Silicon Valley what it is today is rewarding those who demonstrate great ingenuity, effort and business acumen with piles of money.
Nor do I mind fundamentally disagreeing with their politics. Despite the valley’s generally strong liberal leanings, tech firms have frequently had conservative leaders. Let’s not forget that David Packard was a lifelong Republican; donor to Richard Nixon’s and Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns; and U.S. deputy secretary of defense during the Nixon administration.
But what I always admired about Packard, the cofounder of the company that helped launch Silicon Valley, was his sense of social responsibility and commitment to the health of the region. Nearly 50 years ago, it was Packard who founded the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, whose original mission was to foster innovation and corporate citizenship. And then it did just that.
In contrast, today’s tech titans, while accumulating wealth at a record pace, aren’t doing their part to ensure the welfare of the region that helped them attain their unimaginable wealth. Their failure has prompted public backlash like the billionaire tax that may go before California voters this fall. The initiative is a desperate cry for help from people who work and live in the region and beyond.
If passed this fall, it would impose a one-time (in theory, at least) tax on residents with a net worth of $1 billion or more, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rather than acknowledging the seriousness of the region’s problems and putting their collective heads together to address them, our tech titans are crying like toddlers fearing a sibling is trying to take away some of their favorite toys.
Very valuable toys. Examine the recent market cap of five Silicon Valley companies: Nvidia $4.6 trillion. Alphabet $4.1 trillion. Apple $3.8 trillion. Broadcom $1.5 trillion. Tesla $1.3 trillion. That is a total of $15.3 trillion. Trillion!
Social responsibility
Yet when Silicon Valley’s biggest tech proponent in Congress — Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara — announced his support for the billionaire tax, the ultra-rich cried foul.
Never mind that it was Khanna who was the lead House author of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which included $100 billion for the tech industry’s most critical component — chips. And it was Khanna who helped lead the 2023 effort to rescue Silicon Valley Bank, the bank of choice for valley founders and venture capitalists, from collapse.
“The founders who built the valley were proud of the place,” said Khanna. “They attributed their success to their hard work and pluck, but also to the community. There was a healthy sense of social responsibility.”
Rather than embrace the congressmember, Vinod Khosla, one of the valley’s most respected venture capitalists with a net worth estimated at more than $13 billion, called Khanna a “commie comrade,” likely referring to his serving as Bernie Sanders’ campaign chair during his 2020 presidential run.
This is the same Khosla who bought 89 acres of beachfront property in San Mateo County and then tried to block public access to popular Martins Beach.
Don’t know about you, but I’m clear on who the better role model is.
I haven’t decided if I’ll support the billionaire tax if it comes to a vote. But I do know that it won’t be the last effort to warn the ultrawealthy that something is dreadfully wrong with the direction we’re heading, both here in the valley and across the nation.
The sooner our tech titans understand that and start doing something about it, the sooner we’ll get a serious start on working together to solve our problems.
Ed Clendaniel was the Mercury News editorial page editor from 2018-23.