From the front row to the hot seat — what the midterms mean for Big Tech

Right before the midterm elections, OpenAI hired Jessica Schumer, daughter of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer. The company also said it would start calling its data centers “compute campuses.”

For the past two years, many of Silicon Valley’s biggest names have built closer ties with President Donald Trump and his administration. Several attended White House events, some companies scaled back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and some executives donated millions to super PACs supporting his campaign and allied candidates. Administration policies also benefited the industry, including tax breaks, the pausing of some federal investigations, and looser AI regulation. Meanwhile, Meta faced lawsuits and billion-dollar fines and OpenAI faced suits alleging its technology harmed users.

Now, with the midterms shifting the balance of power in Washington, those same companies are working to rebuild ties with Democrats, who have pledged to tighten oversight of AI. How far that gets them may depend less on image-polishing than on where the real fights are happening: in state capitals, in communities deciding whether to host data centers, and, as we’ve seen this past week, in the markets watching the AI boom.