So, in January 2025, in the US, #45 became #47. It was too cold for President Donald Trump to have his ceremony outdoors, so, inside they went. And who all were in attendance? The tech broligarchy. Elon Musk of Tesla, X and SpaceX with his arm inadvertently outstretched. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta with his eyes on the prize. Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Google and Timothy Cook of Apple were there to witness it live, too.
Something interesting seems to be happening in Trump 2.0: BigTech seems to be scaling back its commitment to DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) initiatives. These companies – Alphabet, Amazon and Meta – seem to be quietly dialling back these programmes.
In a December 2024 memo, Amazon was said to have told its employees that it was winding down outdated programmes and materials related to representation and inclusion. Though, an Amazon spokesperson was said to have remarked that no DEI initiatives were being pulled back, so it’s a grey area.
And Mark Zuckerberg went on Joseph Rogan’s podcast in January 2025 to seemingly expose how the Joseph Biden administration was putting pressure on his team to censor and block messages that didn’t align with the status quo. In a way, that might help curry favour with Donald. At the same time, Meta announced it was ending its major DEI programmes across the company by ending equity and inclusion programmes & changing hiring and supplier diversity practices.
A lot of things happened in 2020, one of which was the tragic killing of George Floyd by the US boys in blue. This was said to have led to a commitment by Google’s parent company Alphabet to increase the number of leaders from underrepresented groups by 30% and it was said that executive performance evals could be tied to team diversity metrics. Google’s CDO (Chief Diversity Officer) – you read the position name right – said in 2024 that the company had hit about 60% of its 5-year goal. That may not be happening anymore.
And interestingly, it’s said that financial firms, like BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase, were said to be pulling out of groups focused on dealing with climate change.
So, what’s going on? This may not really come off as a surprise. Republicans in the US seem to be escalating attacks on firms, like BlackRock and Disney, by insinuating that they’re going too woke. Remember how Bud Light faced severe backlash trying to appeal to the LGBTQ folks? And it’s said that Donald is signing executive orders to eliminate government diversity programmes.
Maybe, this is a way to appear less woke. At one point, DEI may have been seen as a corporate necessity, but in the era of Trump 2.0, maybe this might be seen as something expendable. Some say DEI is important to create equitable workspaces and reduce bias, others may want to do away with DEI, remarking it prioritizes identity over meritocracy. It’s a tough clash of ideologies.
Perhaps, for Indian startups, this could be a blessing in disguise. If this could spell trouble for DEI in the US and not as many Indians are hired on the basis of their race, there could be a potential increase in homegrown opportunities. Can’t find solid roles at big Silicon Valley tech companies or the ones that ran away from LA?
Come home back to India and help build the country again by growing domestic startups! Bring your high-calibre talent to strengthen startups on Indian soil! On the other hand, if Indians in the US could thrive on the sole basis of meritocracy, things might continue to be great for them. So, maybe, this could be an interesting opportunity for Indian founders for talent acquisition and retention. It’s like reverse flipping, but for people.
On the other hand, if VC firms in the US have integrated DEI principles, could that mean that fewer women-led startups would get funded? Or would it be insulting to infer that women-led startups only get funding under a DEI lens? At the same time, the actual stats aren’t too promising. It’s said that VC funding for women went from close to 15% in 2021 to close to 10% in 2023 with female founders in India receiving less than 10% of funding of that.
Is it a good thing or bad thing that global investors might reduce emphasis on DEI-aligned investments? Reverting to traditional business fundamentals: a good or bad thing?
So, what does 2025 look like? Could DEI become a relic of the past? Or are we going to include it in the future?
