Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak turned on his fellow Silicon Valley tech bros – taking direct aim at Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The 74-year-old who co-founded the renowned tech company with Steve Jobs back in 1976 addressed a large audience at Barcelona’s Talent Arena developers fair. During the event on Tuesday, he expressed his concerns about Big Tech’s significant involvement in US politics, as reported by Forbes.
Wozniak argued that the major tech companies ‘are just so big, it’s like they’re running our lives’.
He mentioned, ‘Technology companies are massive, and due to their substantial value, they inevitably engage in political matters.’ Wozniak highlighted the tech industry’s tradition of influencing policymakers through lobbying efforts.
Wozniak further stated, ‘However, I am uncomfortable with the idea of these companies assuming a direct role in politics simply because of their success in the technology sector.’ Having departed the company well before it achieved global success, he also shared his views on Musk during his presentation.
He went on to explain that ‘the skills of politics are very different than the skills for technology companies to have success.’
‘When you run a business, you look around and you look for a consensus. If half your employees feel one way and half the other way, you negotiate, you compromise.’
‘I don’t see that happening in the case of Elon Musk… you don’t just say everything is out and start fresh.’
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, 74, lamented Big Tech’s ‘direct role’ in US politics as he spoke to hundreds of attendees at Barcelona’s Talent Arena developers fair on Tuesday. Wozniak is pictured in 2022
The Apple co-founder took specific aim at Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Wozniak’s comments come in stark contrast to other tech leaders who have cozied up to President Donald Trump in recent months.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, traveled to the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate twice after he won control of the White House over former Vice President Kamala Harris.
He announced at the time he would end Facebook and Instagram’s fact-checking program, despite studies that proved it reduced misinformation on the social media sites.
The billionaire also moved to allow for LGBT people to be called mentally ill, promoted his most Trump-favoring executive, and put Trump supporter UFC boss Dana White on the board.
Zuckerberg even appeared at Trump’s inauguration, alongside Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who similarly supported the president in his re-election campaign.
He had ordered the Washington Post not to endorse Harris in the race, and in December, Bezos said he was ‘optimistic’ about Trump’s second term and noted that he plans to ‘help him’ achieve their shared goals.
Bezos has since announced he plans to overhaul the Washington Post’s Opinion page to focus solely on support for, ‘personal liberties and free markets’.
Other tech executives have not been as prominent in their support of Trump, but have supported his agenda in other ways.
Wozniak’s comments come in stark contrast to other tech leaders who have cozied up to President Donald Trump in recent months, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Google bosses, for example, sent employees an email last month saying they would no longer be striving to improve DEI representation in the workforce amid Trump’s anti-woke agenda.
Its parent company, Alphabet, also removed a sentence stating that the company was ‘committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.’
Still, Musk remains the most prominent tech bro in Trump’s orbit as he heads the president’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency.
He has claimed the department saved American taxpayers $105 billion by terminating contracts and canceling leases as well as federal grants.
But the agency’s figures have been called into question, as the 2,299 contracts listed on its Wall of Receipts only amounts to $8.8 billion in alleged savings.
The department also claims that it has terminated $660 million worth of real estate leases as well as $10.3 billion in federal government grants.
Yet that would still only amount to $19.7 billion in savings – a far cry from the $105 billion the department said it has saved.
Musk remains the most prominent tech bro in Trump’s orbit as he heads the president’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency
Amid the massive cuts, protests against the Tesla CEO sprang up across the country over the weekend.
Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered outside a Tesla dealership in the Big Apple on Saturday, waving signs that read ‘No Dictators in the USA’ and ‘Burn a Tesla: Save Democracy’.
The demonstration, which police said involved around 300 people, was protesting Musk for firing thousands of federal employees, and terminating hundred of aid contracts and federal leases in his effort to shrink the government.
At one point during the protest, at least one of the Tesla store’s glass front doors was smashed in the chaos, the New York Daily News reported.
Nine people were arrested in the aftermath.
Similar demonstrations, though, also took place at the electric vehicle maker’s showrooms in Jacksonville, Florida; Tucson, Arizona, Los Angeles, California; and Boston, Massachusetts.
At times, the protesters blocked traffic as they chanted and waved signs, including one that read ‘Send Elon to Mars.’
