Apple Legend Woz Says Tech Companies Are Too Big & Too Political Today – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 6th March 2025, 05:51 pm

Speaking at a tech conference in Barcelona this week, Mobile World Congress, Apple legend Steve Wozniak (Woz) made some interesting comments on the tech industry today. Well, the key points are right there in the headlines — tech companies have gotten too big, and now they’re getting too political. They are increasingly controlling our individual lives, and now they’re also taking control of our politics and policies. Of course, I think the latter is largely a US-centric perspective, as tech companies don’t seem to have nearly the direct political power elsewhere that they have in the US.

“Technology companies are huge, and as they’re huge and worth that much money, they have to have some political involvement,” Woz realistically noted, while referencing the longstanding role of lobbying in politics. “But actually taking a direct role… just because they’ve made it big in technology, I don’t like that at all,” he added.

Elon Musk is clearly the most obvious tech billionaire who has somehow practically become the shadow president — and one going far beyond constitutional executive powers. But there’s also Peter Thiel, who has arguably been at least as influential, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, David Sachs, and others.

Woz’s remarks ring true, and powerful. Why should tech billionaires be able to insert so much direct political power over Americans? Why should tech nerds who became some of the richest people on the planet because they created popular technology platforms have control over our Social Security, Medicare, Department of Education, Department of Energy, the IRS, USAID, the EPA, and international conflicts? How have they been educated and equipped to deal with matters far outside their fields of expertise? Woz knows this community and is concerned, and I think we all should be.

“I think that the skills of politics are very different than the skills for technology companies to have success… it doesn’t make sense to run a government like a business,” Wozniak noted. This is something that those who have been educated and trained in political and social matters know well, but it’s something tech company billionaires don’t seem to understand. They like jumping to the conclusion that they should make all of the decisions because they had a money-making idea or two and wrote effective code.

“All the Big Tech companies are just so big. It’s like they’re running our lives,” Woz added.

He also specifically addressed Elon Musk’s dictatorial and undemocratic way of doing things. “When you run a business, you look around and you look for a consensus … 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,” Woz commented. Well, perhaps that idea of how to run a business is how Woz helped do so at Apple, or experienced things at Apple. Perhaps that was even partly how Elon Musk’s companies were run one or two decades ago. However, numerous stories have shown that Musk has no tolerance for ideas opposed to his, for people who don’t do exactly what he wants, and for working with employees who don’t agree with pretty much everything he says. And we’re also seeing that dictatorial nature in his political involvement, along with massive jumping to conclusions, false assumptions, and US and global harm.

While I’m generally not a fan of having tech billionaires running the show politically, if there was one I’d put some trust in, it’d probably be Woz. He seems to be abnormally down to earth, sensible, humble, and understanding of the reasons we have democracy — compared to other tech goliaths. Of course, he recognizes there are better people for the job, and Elon Musk isn’t one of them.

(Ironically, Elon Musk doesn’t even seem to be helping or have influence over the two things he knows a lot about — electric vehicles and the grid.)

Featured photo by Nichollas Harrison (CC BY-SA 2.0)