Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I\u2019m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy and healthy end of the year. I myself have a cold.<\/p>\n
Today, we are looking back at the biggest stories in tech of 2025 \u2013 Elon Musk\u2019s political rise, burst and fall; artificial intelligence\u2019s subsumption of the global economy, all other technology, and even the Earth\u2019s topography; Australia\u2019s remarkable social media ban; the tech industry\u2019s new Trumpian politics; and, as a treat, a glimpse of the apocalypse offered by one of Silicon Valley\u2019s savviest and strangest billionaires.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk, a one-man hurricaneTesla CEO Elon Musk attends a memorial service for slain far-right commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona, on 21 September 2025. Photograph: Daniel Cole\/Reuters<\/p>\n
At the close of 2024, I wrote that Elon Musk\u2019s support of Donald Trump had made him the world\u2019s most powerful unelected man<\/a>. In 2025, his reign turned out to be short-lived. He rose fast and haphazardly, like a whizzing firework, only to explode spectacularly in June when he claimed in a post on X that the president of the United States was named in the government\u2019s files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n Even in that short period of less than six months, Musk made a tremendous impact. He tore up wide swaths of the US government \u2013 tens of thousands of jobs, the security of extremely sensitive data, and entire agencies like USAid \u2013 that may never be stitched back together.<\/p>\n After Doge imploded, Musk promised to turn back to his business empire, which saw great success and great failures alike in 2025. His rocket company SpaceX saw continued growth and is poised to conduct an initial public offering next year, perhaps as the most valuable private company in the world. Electric carmaker Tesla<\/a>, by contrast, faced violent backlash and major competition from its Chinese counterparts, which produced cheaper and more advanced vehicles while Tesla\u2019s innovation and inventory stagnated. These headwinds caused a global sales slump for Musk\u2019s carmaker.<\/p>\n Look back at our reporting on Doge, Tesla, SpaceX, Musk himself:<\/p>\n The \u2018department of government efficiency\u2019<\/p>\n Tesla faces backlash over Musk\u2019s politics<\/p>\n Look ahead: SpaceX expands in preparation for 2026 IPO<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence blankets the worldA pipe lays along a fence line near construction at the Tahoe\u2011Reno Industrial Center in Storey county, Nevada, on 28 October\u202f2025. Photograph: Bridget Bennett\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence has gone from a niche within tech to the industry\u2019s most prominent focus. The Magnificent Seven \u2013 Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla \u2013 are investing hundreds of billions of dollars into new software that they hope will do the bulk of humanity\u2019s work before too long. The investment is driving the bulk of the growth of the US\u2019s economy, giving rise to fears of a financial bubble and its popping. The US and China are locked in a cold war-esque race against each other, with startups in each country vying for cutting-edge breakthroughs, as governments around the world are forced to decide how they will regulate a new technological force.<\/p>\n Before AI can arrive at that future, though, it needs brains a la the Tin Man of The Wizard of Oz. Those brains come in the form of datacenters. These massive buildings, which house the millions and millions of semiconductor chips booming AI development, have cropped up around the world, met with enthusiasm from leaders eager for tax revenue and deep concern from environmental advocates and, increasingly, local community members. The investment in and construction of datacenters wrought huge change in the physical landscape of the Earth in 2025 as tens of billions of dollars chased any available land, electricity, water and semiconductor chips.<\/p>\n More from our reporting in the last year:<\/p>\n Datacenters<\/p>\n The future of AI<\/p>\n Multitrillion-dollar valuations<\/p>\n But does it work?<\/p>\n Tech gets in bed with Trump 2.0Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend the inauguration of Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the US Capitol on 20 January 2025 in Washington DC. Photograph: Abaca\/Rex\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Elon Musk made a full-throated and whole-hearted embrace of Donald Trump in 2024 and 2025. He was not alone. Many of his fellows in Silicon Valley did the same, sitting beside the Trump family at the president\u2019s inauguration after donating millions to his inaugural committee. The tech giants continued their embrace of Trump and his policies by scuttling their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which they championed during Barack Obama\u2019s presidency, and by cooperating with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Trump\u2019s harsh immigration crackdown. What the industry gave, it reaped tenfold<\/a> in deregulation, friends high up in Washington like JD Vance and David Sacks, and a Trump order for states not to regulate AI<\/a> signed just weeks ago.<\/p>\n More from our reporting this year:<\/p>\n Donations and Trump\u2019s inauguration<\/p>\n DEI scuttled<\/p>\n Immigrants surveilled<\/p>\n Australia cuts teens offMillions of children and teens lost access to accounts after Australia\u2019s social media ban took effect. Illustration: Eiko Ojala\/The Guardian<\/p>\n This year saw Australia take the extraordinary measure of banning children under 16 from social media. The remarkable measure went into effect just weeks ago after a slew of legal challenges and protests from tech companies.<\/p>\n Read some of our comprehensive reporting on the ban:<\/p>\n Bonus: The Apostle Peter\u2019s apocalyptic prayersPeter Thiel gave a series of fevered, incoherent lectures about the antichrist and the coming of the end times. Illustration: Guardian Design\/Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n