Big tech votes with wallets, donating more to Biden campaign than Trump

Employees at six major technology companies have donated nearly $4.79 million to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign, compared to just $239,527 to incumbent Republican President Donald Trump's from January 2019 through August 2020, according to an analysis conducted by WIRED, which utilized Federal Elections Commission data.

The outlet said that the FEC posts employer information for people who donate $200 or greater to a presidential campaign within a calendar year and that workers could potentially have given smaller donations that are not included in the data.

WIRED also noted that the analysis includes funds given by less than 5,300 workers from the 1.4 million individuals working at the six entities.

Examining contributions from workers at Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Oracle, WIRED reported that employees at Alphabet – which encompasses subsidiaries such as Google, YouTube and others – gave the most to Biden. Alphabet employees supplied nearly $1.8 million for Biden, compared to $23,566 for Trump.

Oracle employees donated $50,114 to the president's campaign compared to $204,208 to Biden's campaign. Thirty percent of Oracle's workers who gave at least $200 donated to Trump.

Microsoft employees supplied $913,318 to Biden's campaign compared to the much smaller $75,428 to Trump's.

The Republican and Democratic presidential contenders are each raking in more donations from the tech company employees than Hillary Clinton and Trump did during the same timeframe in the previous election.

"The data from each company includes contributions made by employees at those companies’ major subsidiaries, namely: Alphabet (DeepMind, Google, Verily, Waymo, YouTube); Amazon (Audible, Whole Foods, Zappos, Ring, Twitch, Goodreads); Facebook (Whatsapp, Giphy, Instagram); Microsoft (Github, Skype, LinkedIn, Xbox); Oracle (Netsuite)," WIRED explained.