Latest update: April 28, 2026
Why call these men Tech Lords? That is what they aspire to. They are mobilizing their powers to create a new post-democracy world. Some call it The New Feudalism. Some are fascist-friendly, but this is not fascism. It may be worse.
This is a work in progress, part of the research I am doing with Ángel Gordo for our book AI and Power: Prefiguring Algorithmic Intelligence (Intellect 2027). I plan to update and add to this chart as seems necessary. It is pretty much self explanatory. I have only attributed positions to individual billionaires with good evidence. A lack of evidence— for example on hating democracy or condoning Israeli genocide—means the relevant box is empty. Of course, this doesn’t prove they don’t hold these beliefs. If you have updates or corrections to any field please send them on to me.
A few comments:
* Most, if not all, will turn on Trump as he falls. It is no accident that Vice-President Vance is a fully owned subsidiary of Peter Thiel. The King is dead! Long Live the King!
* While two of these billionaires are openly transphobic (most famously Musk), several others are openly Gay. Most are not interested in policing sexuality, even though they have allied for now with MAGA. Intimacy with other humans seems difficult for many of them, which perhaps explains their openness, longing even, for intimacy with machines or even disembodied algorithms.* I have read all the books listed and several of them have shaped my life, The Lord of the Rings most of all. I know, pretty feudalistic! But I was always more about the performance of honor, the virtue in the generosity of the hobbits and the service ethic of Gandalf and Strider, not the hierarchy of it all. Being an insufferable know-it-all I did succumb to Ayan Rand’s arrogant vision for a few months when I was 14, but I eventually saw through it and soon after became a devotee of Emma Goldman, as I am to this day. I never fell for neoClassical economics. My favorite SF novel is The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin, by the way.
- * Many of these men are openly misogynistic. But none have yet called for outlawing abortion or ending the right of women to vote, as some do in MAGA.
- * A number of these Tech Lords are surprisingly irrational about medical science, especially in their faith in unproven longevity treatments. After all, Saint Steven Jobs died because of his belief in unscientific treatments for his cancer…until it was too late. As far as I know, none have openly rejected all vaccines…yet.
- * These billionaires don’t show much concern about the climate emergency. None of them openly deny it, but most of them, if not all, expect new technologies, especially AI, to somehow solve it. They do not fear for their comfort, let alone their survival, while we all wait for this magic to happen. Most have their bunker or fortified island fully stocked already.