“They turned profits into power,” said Rob Lalka, author of “The Venture Alchemists,” which came out this year and profiles many of the figures who will enter government.

Lalka, a professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, said several traits characterized the technologists surrounding Trump, including their wealth and skepticism of institutions, as well as heavily created online personalities. And he said they share a history, with many of them overlapping during and after Thiel’s time at Stanford University.

“This contrarianism is no coincidence. It comes from real experiences they had as college students,” he said.

In other words, a right-wing faction has coalesced within the normally progressive tech industry, and much of it is preparing to make Washington a second home for the next four years.

The Trump transition team describes it as a natural fit.

“President Trump’s agenda includes economic, energy and regulatory policies that will enable the United States to regain its global dominance in innovation and technology,” Brian Hughes, a transition spokesman, said in a statement.

“President Trump surrounds himself with industry leaders like Elon Musk as he works to restore innovation, reduce regulations and celebrate free expression in his second term,” he said.

Musk, Sacks and Thiel did not respond to requests for comment on the transition.

Neil Malhotra, a professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said it is notable that many in the tech industry who are close to Trump are not from the most notable tech companies such as Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

“This particular group is unique because it comes from a lot of venture capital,” he said, referring to venture capitalists who invest in startups. “Venture is very different from the established Big Seven technology companies. The established Big Seven tech people try to be very neutral.” The Magnificent 7 collection of tech companies includes Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla.

Venture capitalists are often less interested in corporate initiatives such as diversity programs, he said. Instead, they have a reputation for ruthless competition, focused on growth at all costs in the most extreme moments and upending the existing order.

“The adversarial culture of Silicon Valley and the venture capital movement has resisted big business ideas that emerged from the professional managerial class,” he said.

Trump’s second term will not be the first administration to have strong influence from the modern tech industry. The Obama administration was closely tied to technology, particularly Google and its executives like former CEO Eric Schmidt.

But there is little overlap between the technology experts who advised President Barack Obama and those who now work for Trump. And this time there are different dynamics, said Nathan Leamer, a Republican consultant in Washington and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies.

“Obama followed Big Tech’s lead in 2008, and there was excitement that the Obama administration’s approach to technology reflected the blogosphere and early Twitter and how those companies saw themselves as part of the world,” he said.

“The difference now is that with Trump you are following the lead of the Republican Party,” he said. “Tech is watching Republican leaders and realizing they need to get involved. Otherwise they will be left out.”

Previously Trump-skeptical tech companies like Meta, Amazon and OpenAI are each donating at least $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donations that Trump can use for any purpose.

Leading the new government will be Vance, who worked for one of Thiel’s venture capital funds, Mithril Capital, after graduating from law school and has benefited from the association ever since. Thiel was a key backer of Vance’s run for Senate in Ohio in 2022.

“From above you can see the connection to Silicon Valley,” Leamer said. (He noted that Trump is now considered a tech investor himself and owns a majority stake in Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.)

Leamer said some industries rely on Washington-based trade and lobbying organizations to be the faces of their companies, while figures like Musk, Sacks and Thiel pursue a different model: They cut out the trade groups as middlemen and speak directly through them a large audience social media and podcasts.

“These are the people behind the microphone,” he said. “It is fitting that these very famous people are now shutting down the market.”

Trump’s picks for Cabinet-level nominations are generally people with political backgrounds, including members of Congress, Republican governors and campaign supporters. But just below that level, tech personalities occupy some of the most important positions.

Jacob Helberg, an adviser to government contractor Palantir Technologies and husband of another former PayPal executive, Keith Rabois, is Trump’s pick for undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. According to Politico and The Wall Street Journal, a technology investor, Trae Stephens, co-founder of defense firm Anduril and partner at Thiel’s Founders Fund, has been considered for positions at the Defense Department. Jim O’Neill, former CEO of the Thiel Foundation, is Trump’s choice for the second post at the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump has nominated Emil Michael, a former Uber executive, to the top research post at the Pentagon. Vance’s economic adviser Gail Slater, who has worked for Fox Corp., Roku and a now-defunct trade group called the Internet Association, is Trump’s choice to lead antitrust enforcement at the Justice Department.

In announcing his choice of Slater on Truth Social, Trump highlighted the conflicts between large incumbent tech companies and tech startups backed by venture capitalists:

“Big Tech has been out of control for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans as well as those of Little Tech!”

Trump has also appointed people friendly to the same tech faction to head the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But there are still hundreds or thousands of potential positions at the middle levels of the bureaucracy where other technicians could end up. Vance said in a 2021 podcast interview that if Trump were to win another term, he should replace all federal officials with “our people,” i.e. conservatives.

Tulane University’s Lalka said that despite all the rhetoric from right-wing tech entrepreneurs and investors about meritocracy, Vance’s vision for the federal workforce is quite the opposite.

“In the 19th century, that literally means: ‘To the victor goes the spoils,’” he said. “It’s not about attracting top talent.”

Stanford’s Malhotra said an open question is how many tech professionals will take full-time government jobs instead of part-time jobs. For example, Sacks’ role in the White House is expected to be part-time, and Musk’s job of co-chairing an efficiency commission will also not be his primary role.

“This will really limit their power,” he said of the part-time positions. “This is a really good way for Trump to marginalize these people and make them seem powerful.”

Despite his part-time role, however, Musk has recently left his mark on the transition, helping to block a federal funding bill and traveling around the world with Trump to meet foreign leaders.

There is a long list of measures Trump’s tech officials are expected to tackle, including deregulation of the cryptocurrency industry, fewer restrictions on artificial intelligence development, easier environmental approval for projects like Musk’s SpaceX rocket launches, a shakeup in antitrust enforcement, and an overhaul of…military procurement and, with congressional approval, low tax rates for corporations and wealthy individuals.

Adam Kovacevich, the CEO of Chamber of Progress, a Democratic tech industry organization, said that despite Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump in November, he tries to see upside potential for the tech industry overall, which is partly why depends on who advises Trump.

“You have to go into the new government with optimism,” he said.

“A lot of these people who supported Trump have supported Democrats in the past, so we’re not necessarily talking about people who are always in the Republican corner,” he said.

Tech big names in this category include Musk, Sacks and investor Marc Andreessen, who recently said he was spending half his time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida advising on the transition. Kovacevich said he believes her alliance with Trump can be viewed as a narrow-minded reaction against President Joe Biden, a longtime tech industry skeptic, rather than an outright rejection of Democratic policies.

Kovacevich said he believes Trump will be unable to implement some of his most radical ideas on technology, including a commitment to force social media platforms to further shift their content moderation in favor of conservative users.

“Any effort in this regard will likely run into a First Amendment challenge,” he said.

A closely watched question: How much money will Trump’s tech allies make during his term? According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s wealth has risen 70% since last month’s election to about $450 billion – fueling progressive theories that he and others in the tech space are motivated by a desire to increase their net worth.

The stock price of Palantir Technologies, a government contractor, has roughly doubled since the election, and defense technology startups like Anduril have also expressed optimism that sales will increase under the new administration.

Leamer, the Republican consultant, said he believes Trump’s tech allies have a different motivation: to prove they are right.

“I think they see this as an opportunity to put their ideas into action,” he said. “These individuals have thought about these ideas and have a real interest in entrepreneurship and the future of the country.”

CORRECTION (December 26, 2024, 1:00 p.m. ET): A chart in an earlier version of this article contained an incorrect photo. The article has been updated with a photo of Jim O’Neill, the technology investor, rather than the British economist of the same name.