Apple Park photo of the side of the main buildingSource: Apple

What you need to know

  • Employees at Apple, as well as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft made up a key source of contributions to Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
  • New insight from the WSJ reveals the firms were the five largest sources of money among corporate employers for the Democrat campaign.

A new report says that employees at Apple donated nearly $2 million to Joe Biden's presidential campaign, and that big tech was the biggest source of donations from corporate employers to his cause.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Employees of big technology firms were a key source of contributions for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, newly released campaign finance records show, eclipsing donations from employees at traditional Democratic fundraising sources such as banks and law firms.

Employees of Google's parent, Alphabet Inc., and Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. were the five largest sources of money for Mr. Biden's campaign and joint fundraising committees among those identifying corporate employers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of campaign finance reports.

Records show that Joe Biden received more than $15 million in contributions from the employees of those companies. Alphabet (Google) employees were the biggest contributor, followed by Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and then Facebook. Whilst the report notes that previous Democrat candidates including Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama also received strong support from the sector, it was not the top source of employee donations for either of them.

By way of comparison, the top sources of employee donations for Donald Trump's campaign were American Airlines, Boeing, Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, and Wells Fargo. One former spokesman for the Republican National Committee there was a "disconnect between the tech industry and many Republicans" stating "we don't like Silicon Valley - and they don't like us."

The report notes how interesting the support is given that "some Democrats believe that the companies have grown too large and that their platforms have permitted the spread of false political information." The report notes bipartisan support for measures that could reduce the power of big tech corporations currently under antitrust scrutiny, including Apple.