In tech this week: The CEO of the city’s largest private employer apologizes, Amazon Web Services’ outage and OpenAI’s Sora makes waves
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host and editor, Blake Montgomery. What I’m watching this week: South Park’s caricature of Peter Thiel and his obsession with the antichrist. Read our reporting on the show’s inspiration: Thiel’s bizarre off-the-record lectures on the subject. And now, let’s get into things.
The co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, said last week that Donald Trump should make good on his threats to send the US national guard into San Francisco, despite resistance from local leaders. Even Marc Benioff’s own public relations manager was aghast at his remarks, according to the New York Times.
Benioff is a local power player in the City by the Bay. His company is the city’s largest private employer. His statement published just as his company’s marquee conference, Dreamforce, was beginning, taking over the city’s streets in its own way. With a net worth of about $9bn, per Forbes – far less than Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk – he punches above his weight politically, especially in Democratic circles.
His comments were at odds with his liberal image and past statements, though not with how Salesforce conducts business. They divided tech leaders. One of Salesforce’s board members resigned in response, but Musk loved them. My colleague Dani Anguiano wrote: “David Sacks, a major Trump donor who the president appointed to serve as his AI and crypto czar, argued a ‘targeted operation’ could quickly clean up San Francisco while Benioff suggested troops could help with policing duties.”
