Silicon Valley And Donald Trump: How Technology Responded To Clinton's Surprise Defeat

The realization that Republican Nominee Donald Trump’s new title is now President-elect has sent shockwaves through much of the country. Social media is ablaze with blame, the media and political elites were caught off guard and the pollsters were wrong. One area that was decidedly in Hillary Clinton’s camp prior to Election Day was Silicon Valley. Today, the response from the tech community has been a mix of silence, despair and calls for hope despite the unexpected outcome.

Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, a registered Republican, was one of the Valley’s earliest supporters for Clinton. According to leaked emails, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Apple CEO Tim Cook were considered to be Clinton’s Vice President. The latter of the two hosted a fundraiser for Clinton in August. None have released a statement or tweeted since Trump’s win.

Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founder and co-founder of Asana, gave $20 million to the Clinton campaign. Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, has been a vocal critic of Trump. Both expressed their displeasure with Tuesday night’s results.

One technology billionaires that has broken their silence after the election is the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. Another is Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Prior to Election Day, Facebook investor Peter Thiel and Oculus founder (owned by Facebook) Palmer Luckey were two of Silicon Valley’s most notable Trump supporters. Thiel came to light this summer as the man secretly funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuits against Gawker. The openly gay CEO of PayPal spoke on behalf of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July. Luckey was outed earlier this summer as the man behind a Pro-Trump online meme machine. He hasn’t been heard from since his apology in September.

Thiel released a statement to Business Insider praising Trump’s win. “Congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump. He has an awesomely difficult task, since it is long past time for us to face up to our country's problems,” Thiel said. “We're going to need all hands on deck."