"I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States." These words of Apple CEO Tim Cook were directed at the US President Donald Trump when the latter hosted key figures of major American tech companies for a dinner at the White House on September 4, 2025. In addition to Cook, other tech CEOs, such as chipmaker AMD's Lisa Su, also praised Trump's leadership. But beyond the optics of the dinner, Trump has been threatening Apple with tariffs if it manufactures its products overseas (including in India), while AMD has agreed to share 15% of its revenues from China with the US government.
While Big Tech companies have always worked closely with the US government, the former had asserted their autonomy during the four years of the Biden presidency. But since President Trump was sworn in earlier this year, his administration has steadily eroded the corporate autonomy of US Big Tech players. This will not just alter how these companies operate domestically in the US but also reshape the global tech landscape as these tech firms further entrench themselves as instruments of Trump's machinations and economic coercion directed towards friends and foes alike.
The Biden Era
Earlier this year, in February 2025, researchers from Leiden University, Ashoka University and King's College London published a research paper in the journal Review of International Political Economy, citing examples from the Biden years to make the case that tech players were asserting their corporate autonomy. In their response to the Russia-Ukraine war, US tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Intel and AMD went beyond what they were legally required to do. For instance, the authors cite examples of Intel and AMD restricting the sale of even non-military consumer chips to Russia, Apple limiting online payment, and Microsoft suspending new sales of its products and services in Russia.
However, one company that has displayed the most autonomous behaviour has been Elon Musk's Starlink, thanks to its role of providing internet to the Ukrainian military. The authors credit Musk's volatile behaviour on Starlink service provisioning as stemming from his parleys with multiple nation-states, including the US, Ukraine, and even Russia and China. Musk's restriction of the provision of satellite internet services to the Ukrainian military at a critical point in the war only underscored the infrastructural power commanded by Starlink.
One Step At A Time
Generally, the findings of journal papers produced after rigorous research stay relevant for years after their publication. But such are the changes brought about by the Trump administration that what would have held during the Biden years does not hold for the eight months Trump has been in office.
The Trump administration has undertaken a series of steps that are causing a steady erosion in the autonomy of tech players. For instance, in August 2025, Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay 15% of their revenues from China to the US government - effectively transforming the chipmakers into partners of the US government. As part of the deal, the Trump administration eased the export control restrictions on Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308, downgraded chips specifically designed for the Chinese market. In addition to the policy problems stemming from the US government easing national security-linked export controls to become a revenue partner, the arrangement is potentially also in contravention of the US Constitution, which prohibits taxes on exports.
Further, just weeks after calling for the resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Trump was not just appreciative of him but also announced taking up a 10% stake in the tech giant.
Beyond the stakes and revenue-sharing arrangements, the administration has also threatened tech companies with consequences if they do not invest in the US. As discussed above, Apple has been threatened with tariffs if it fails to invest in manufacturing in the US. Similarly, Trump has threatened semiconductor imports with steep tariffs unless the tech companies involved make investments in the US.
Although it may not appear so on the surface, the Trump administration has also expanded its grip on the tech sector through the TikTok saga. First, rather than upholding the 2024 law that required the ban or sale of TikTok, Trump first gave multiple extensions for its implementation, with the Department of Justice even formally asking US tech companies (whose services keep TikTok running in the US) not to worry about legal requirements. Second, in reaching a deal with ByteDance and China on TikTok's future in the US, the Trump administration has played a role in deciding which tech players would be involved in the app's operations in the country.
Lastly, the Department of Justice's push for the breaking up of Google, in two separate cases in US courts this year, might stem more from the Trump administration's motivations to control the tech sector instead of any concern about monopolies and abuse of market power by Big Tech players.
Reshaping The Landscape
One implication of the erosion of corporate autonomy of tech players will play out domestically within the US. Companies would be expected to comply with the administration's directive of culling 'woke' AI and aligning more closely with the administration's AI agenda.
But given the dominance of the US Big Tech companies globally, spanning sectors such as cloud, AI and social media, the Trump administration's curtailment of the corporate autonomy of tech players will have implications beyond the US borders. Tech companies would be expected to align ever more closely with the machinations of the Trump administration. Even if the companies would like to comply with the regulations of a foreign jurisdiction - from Europe to India - as the markets in question may be key to their expansion, Trump's broad tariff threats may come in the way. Tech companies may also slow down their plans to diversify their supply chains out of China and towards developing countries in Asia, such as India and Vietnam. The continuation of the trend of the US government becoming a business partner and instituting investment conditions for the remainder of Trump's term would alter how tech companies do business and, in the process, reshape the global tech landscape.
(Lokendra Sharma is a staff research analyst with the Takshashila Institution's High-Tech Geopolitics Programme.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
