If you entered X or Bluesky last week, it is likely that you have dragged the avalanche of publications on Trump’s reciprocal tariffs and the collapse of the stock market. And if you follow the technological sector as close as Wired, you probably noticed who was not publishing on tariffs: the CEO themselves and directors who supported Trump on the day of the inauguration in January.
Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sussale Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg have saved silence on the subject of tariffsalthough both Pichai and Zuckerberg have continued to publish about artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Elon Musk … well, we’ll talk about that.
Silence is the strongest noise
The silence was deafening, taking into account that the “seven magnificent” collectively lost billions of dollars in market value after the announcement of Trump tariffs last week. But there is a cold logic behind the fact that these technological leaders keep silent in public, especially those who sell hardware. The US has become a very volatile nation, in which the president’s whims must be taken into account before using any political file or making a public statement, especially in an environment in which this statement could become irrelevant an hour later.
“The Arena does not stop moving enough time to make a convincing statement,” a senior communication executive who has worked closely with two CEO of great technological ones told Wired.
Actually, the executives of the great technology are not silent: they simply await the moment for the great return. Niki Christoff, Washington DC’s political strategist and ancient assistant to Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign, says that most of the strategy around commercial standards, and conversations with Trump’s staff, are occurring through secret channels at this time: “There is a lot of personal marking and try to reach agreements.”
During Trump’s first mandate, Cook carefully cultivated a direct relationship with the president to press it on issues such as trade and immigration. It is hard to believe that Cook is not using that direct line now. The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, who did not attend the investiture ceremony, went last week to a million dollars in Mar-A-Lago. Shortly after, the White House withdrew its plans to apply export controls of some chips that Nvidia sells to China.
Private channels allow each technological leader to press to obtain specific tariff exemptions. Of the type that would benefit Nvidia, as more indulgent policies on semiconductor imports for graphic processing units (GPU), which differ from those Apple could be requesting, considering the complexity of its supply chain and its dependence on China. “Opplying tariffs in general is of no use if business leaders can obtain exemptions for their own products,” says Christoff.
At the same time, according to sources consulted by Wired, the CEO of technological ones are letting commercial organizations such as Roundable Business, which represents a series of large technology companies, including Alphabet and Amazon, take part in the work for them. The Roundable Business CEO, Joshua Bolten, issued a statement urging the administration to “quickly reach agreements” with its business partners and apply “reasonable exemptions.” The executives of the Big Tech They have also been able to stay out while bankers such as the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, make public statements about the lasting negative impact of tariffs on the economy, and while the billionaire of the Bill Ackman coverage background continues to tweet about it.
The new commercial strategy of the United States hits the world economy with tariffs on all products that reach 20% for Europe and even 54% for China.
Some CEO cannot keep the comments for themselves
The Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, believes that the vast network of third -party Amazon sellers could end up impacting the cost of tariffs on consumers. Last week, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, sat next to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, from CNBC, who asked him about the tariffs. Ballmer mentioned Siskin that “he studied economy enough at the university to know that tariffs will cause some agitation,” and that “disturbance is very hard for people.”
Nadella was more cautious and took advantage of Sorkin’s poll to promote artificial intelligence: “In the short term, I see it and say: whatever happens, what happens, for the first time we are providing what is essential, a non -durable good called intelligence.” And he added that his second consideration right now is how much calculation the world will need in 25 or 50 years: “I want to maintain those two thoughts and then take a step every time, and then, whatever the geopolitical or economic changes, we will adjust to them.”
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