In 2022, nonprofit neighborhood groups, backed by Silicon Valley billionaires, helped recall a progressive district attorney in San Francisco. What happened next would change the country. 

In Part One of What Tech Wants, Lever Time’s investigation into why Silicon Valley is buying our democracy, producer Ariella Markowitz uncovers how a local experiment unlocked a new formula for political power.

A full transcript of today’s episode is available below.

TRANSCRIPT

Following is an automated, unedited transcription of this episode. The text may contain grammatical or spelling errors, especially for proper nouns, or attribute text to the wrong speaker. If you plan to quote any part of this transcript, please first confirm that it is correct by listening to the audio.

[00:00:00] David Sirota: From The Lever’s reader supported newsroom, it’s Lever Time. I’m David Sirota. Tech industry executives spent nearly $400 million on the 2024 presidential election. Elon Musk alone spent more than $200 million boosting Donald Trump’s campaign through a political action committee. The crypto industry spent over $100 million influencing federal elections across the states.

All of that unprecedented money tipped the scales towards President Trump, and it was used to sabotage candidates that didn’t support big Tech’s agenda. As we head into 2026, it’s happening again. Tech giants are mobilizing to tilt the midterm elections. But what is the agenda here? Why are tech industry leaders pouring millions of dollars into politics?

What do they really want? Deregulation of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, or something else that’s coming up on today’s episode of Lever Time.

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