Big Tech faced repercussions for being close to Trump... Republicans also say, “Let’s keep our distance.”

Silicon Valley's big tech companies, which were closely aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump and faced strong backlash in the midterm elections, are reorganizing their political strategies.

The Democratic Party has taken control of Congress and announced strengthening regulations on artificial intelligence (AI), and voices within the Republican Party calling for distance from the technology industry are growing, putting the country under pressure from both sides of the political spectrum.

According to the British daily Financial Times (FT) on the 6th (local time), AI companies are busy preparing response measures, such as recruiting people close to the Democratic Party and announcing their intention to accept regulations.

Big tech companies provided more than $600 million (approximately 800 billion won) to Republican campaign groups for the midterm elections, but the Republican Party lost its majority positions in both the Senate and House to the Democratic Party.

Following the crushing defeat in the election, criticism is pouring in from within the Republican Party that its close relationship with Big Tech led to its defeat.

Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser said, "We need to send the tech industry giants back to Silicon Valley," and argued that we should distance ourselves from Tesla's Elon Musk and Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang.

Pro-Trump activist Amy Kremer also criticized, “We gambled our congressional majority with the money of large AI companies while ignoring our own voters.”

When the new Congress is inaugurated in January next year, the Democratic Party plans to call technology company executives to Congress and demand sworn testimony and investigate the business activities of Musk and others who deal with the federal government.

Accordingly, big tech companies have begun to reset their relationship with the political world.

OpenAI recruited Jessica Schumer, daughter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Meta and Palantir also began recruiting lobbyists close to the Democratic Party.

AI companies are discussing changing the name 'data center' to 'computing campus', while also promising support for schools, investment in the power grid, and environmental protection measures to appease local residents' opposition.

However, some point out that despite this belated move to improve image and accept regulations, it will not be easy to resolve distrust among politicians and civic groups.

Shawna Thomas, CEO of the Guardrails Alliance, an AI regulation advocacy group, said that because of Big Tech companies' close relationship with the political world, any bill or policy idea they put forward will be met with resistance from the beginning. “I don't think they realize this yet.”