Snow Crash 30-year-old cover art by Bruce Jensen - Hiro Protagonist waves a katana.
Guess what? Google and Microsoft are the latest names making some waves with a sizable donation to the group organizing President-elect Donald Trump’s slushy inauguration.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, is stepping up with $1 million for the inaugural fund. Karan Bhatia, who used to be a senior official in the Bush administration and now heads policy at Google, shared the news. It turns out Google has a history of contributing to inaugural events, as confirmed by a spokesperson. CNBC was quick to report on this donation. Bhatia said, “We’re excited to support the 2025 inauguration with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage. Plus, we’re chipping in to the inaugural committee.” Google: 'Don't be evil' (deprecated)
Then, we have Microsoft from Redmond, Washington, who also confirmed they’re donating $1 million to the inauguration. Interestingly, they’ve got a bit of a track record too—they donated $500,000 to Trump’s first inauguration back in 2017, as well as to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
These donations are part of a larger tech-bro trend, echoing similar contributions from other heavyweights like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, and even an AI startup called Perplexity AI. And let’s not forget that Sam Altman from OpenAI and Tim Cook from Apple also put in their own personal donations of $1 million each. Fascinating times, right?
It’s hard not to think about how all these developments resonate with themes from Neal Stephenson’s "Snow Crash." I discovered the book when I was on a trip to Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, California, just after Stephenson's book was been published. The presenter of the SGI machine was so excited and told us as much about the novel. In the book, the intertwining of technology, media, and society creates a digital world teeming with complexity and corporate influence. The massive donations and engagement by these tech giants reflect a tangible version of that fictional landscape, where Hiro Protaganist faces corporations playing influential roles in national events.
And that's not all - Amazon also announced it’s contributing $1 million by streaming the inauguration event on Amazon Video.
While it’s pretty common for big companies to donate to inaugural committees, Trump is breaking records this time around. Biden’s inaugural committee raised $61.8 million back in 2021, and Trump’s in 2017 brought in $106.8 million according to the filings. But now, the Trump-Vance inaugural committee has outdone them all with a whopping $170 million, as reported by the Associated Press.
The amount of money raised is so massive that some donors who gave seven figures won’t get VIP tickets or special perks for the inauguration, thanks to the high demand, according to the New York Times. This shows how major companies view these opportunities as a way to gain favour with the new president, especially those who struggled to stay in his good graces during his first term.
Dmitry Shevelenko, an executive at Perplexity AI, stated last month, "Unlike other tech companies that have recently tossed cash into Trump’s inaugural fund, we weren't around during his first term, so this is a chance for us to team up on common goals rather than trying to fix a rocky relationship."
Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, seemed pretty excited to discuss a big idea for artificial intelligence, likening it to a “Manhattan Project” before a December meeting with Trump. And let’s not forget Bezos, who sat down for dinner with Trump and Tesla’s Elon Musk that same month.
Just this week, Zuckerberg made some moves to win over Trump and his supporters—he added UFC CEO Dana White to Meta’s board and ended the company’s long-standing practice of using independent fact-checkers.
Awash with the dosh. No gain without gravy train.
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