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Tech companies spent a fortune on Clinton

by on10 November 2016


When the future’s orange

If you wonder why technology companies are fuming at the election result, it is probably because they spend a small fortune trying to get Hillary Clinton elected.

According to NBCfor every $1 that employees at the world's biggest technology companies donated to Donald Prince of Orange, they gave $60 to Clinton.

Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon sent a total of $3 million to Clinton compared with just over $50,000 to her Republican challenger.

The figures come from the Centre for Responsive Politics and show that Clinton won 97 percent of big tech money, with the remaining three percent split between Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

While Silicon Valley and Seattle have been Democrat for a while, the level of one-sidedness is unusual. Most of the bad feeling appears to be Trump's attitudes toward minorities and women climate change and immigration.

It is not across the board of course. There are a few technology outfits which are rampantly Republican because they favor the very rich. Facebook director Peter Thiel, who addressed the Republican National Convention,  spent over $1 million supporting Trump.

Overall, the IT industry sent $55.7 million to Clinton and related groups, more than 55 times the $1 million directed to Trump's side. To put this into some perspective, in 2012, President Barack Obama raised about triple the amount of Mitt Romney.

What appears to have especially angered the tech industry is that he will eliminate trade subsidies to countries like China. He has also stated he will force Apple to start manufacturing iPhones domestically.

He has slammed Amazon for allegedly not paying its fair share of taxes, and CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, for not saying nice things about him.

Bezos claimed that Trump will try and chill the media and threaten retribution, retaliation.

Many tech companies were founded by immigrants, and  the industry relies heavily on foreign-born workers because the Americans don't have the engineering skills.

Last modified on 10 November 2016
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