2025 Was the Year of the Tech CEO

Bloomberg

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00:002025 was the year of the tech CEO.

00:03They were at Trump's inauguration.

00:04They were on the cover of Time Magazine's

00:06Person of the Year issue.

00:07But I think they've made mistakes

00:08that could risk a tougher 2026.

00:11Let's start by looking at what happened

00:12to their wealth this year.

00:13Their companies pulled away as by far

00:15the most valuable in the world.

00:17CEO compensation reached new heights.

00:19The AI boom minted new billionaires at a record pace.

00:22And we are not that far away from the first trillionaires.

00:25But those gains on paper came at a cost

00:28best summed up by this figure from Gallup.

00:309%.

00:30That's the percentage of people who said

00:32they had a great deal of confidence

00:34in big tech companies in 2025.

00:36Clearly, that's not about financial performance

00:38since stock prices are surging.

00:40Rather, it's about how inside their companies

00:42and in broader society,

00:44tech CEOs flex their influence and power to new heights.

00:47Inside Meta, for example,

00:48Mark Zuckerberg was seen as less willing to take advice

00:51or listen to employee concerns over policy changes

00:54around issues like DEI and content moderation.

00:57Or take Google co-founder Sergey Brin

00:59encouraging employees to work 60 hours a week

01:01and come to the office at least every weekday.

01:04And many tech CEOs cut headcount

01:06and repeatedly said that AI would make jobs obsolete.

01:09Amazon CEO told his own employees

01:11the company will almost certainly replace some workers

01:14with AI in the next few years.

01:16Outside of their companies,

01:17they use their money and authority

01:18to reshape politics and policy.

01:21Buying influence in Washington

01:22on everything from taxes to tariffs to regulation,

01:25this is all led to warnings that Silicon Valley

01:27is growing out of touch with the masses,

01:29including this one from Eric Schmidt,

01:31who ran Google for years.

01:32That's something tech CEOs need to take seriously

01:35as they enter 2026.

01:37Otherwise, they risk building the kinds of technology

01:39that helps them,

01:41but not the general public,

01:42whose use ultimately powers their companies.

01:44in the entire business.

01:46For more information,

01:46please visit us next week.

01:46Thank you for joining us.

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