The agenda is undisclosed and perhaps still under consideration, but it is unlikely to produce the sort of love fest that existed between President Obama and Silicon Valley. Tech culture celebrates disruption as the tool that produces a better future for all. Many of Donald J. Trump’s supporters, on the other hand, see it as pushing them down.
How to reconcile these views is the task of Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor and Facebook board member whose role is to formulate a tech policy for the new administration. Mr. Thiel secured this position by making a contrarian bet on Mr. Trump’s candidacy, which paid off. The round-table invitations are from Mr. Thiel; Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law; and Reince Priebus, the incoming chief of staff.
If the past is any precedent, Mr. Trump might suggest or even order the tech overlords to do what he thinks necessary. The president-elect met on Tuesday with Masayoshi Son, the founder and chief executive of SoftBank Group, which recently created a new investment fund that could invest up to $100 billion in tech companies worldwide. Afterward, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter that Mr. Son agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and create “50,000 new jobs.”
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