The Year in Tech and the Trump administration.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carrino.

2025 kicked off with a memorable image, a who's who of tech leaders front and center at President

Donald Trump's inauguration. The realignment of the tech industry and the Trump administration

went both ways, mostly. The president advocated for the buildout of AI infrastructure, signed an executive order,

putting a moratorium on state-level AI regulation. But he also added a $100,000 fee to petitions

for H-1B visas, widely used in the tech sector. Here to review the year in tech and Trump is Suyash Pasi. He's a research analyst

and editor at the nonprofit Human Rights Research Center, and he's been following this shift.

I think there was a sort of web of incentives and disincentives. And for some tech leaders and

tech companies, I think their move was to sort of just comply with the Trump administration's changes.

There's also been just a greater emphasis on deregulation.

And there's other tech adjacent or tech industries that sort of were lost at the wayside under the Biden administration

that have sort of risen to prominence again.

Crypto being one of the big ones.

And there's been a big push for just more libertarian, D.I. exclusive policies this year.

What has tech gotten out of this closer relationship between, you know, some of the

leaders of the industry and the Trump administration?

So it really depends on which leader you're talking about.

So I think the broad consensus is that the tech leaders sort of need to be more agreeable

to the government, to the federal government than ever than they have been in the past. Even a couple of

months ago, you saw people like Bill Gates having dinner and other tech leaders

...