Kamala Harris had friends in high-tech places, but it was not enough to secure the presidency.

Progressive Silicon Valley leaders such as Reid Hoffman, Laurene Powell and Vinod Khosla, raised millions for the Harris campaign, hoping for a Democrat in the White House for the next term.

Following him Donald Trump’s clear victory, some of the tech denizens pondered what’s next for their industry. Even in their gloom over Wednesday’s results, traces of cautious optimism began to emerge.

In conversations with over a dozen VCs and founders, there was a sense that regulatory climate could mitigate, potentially easing antitrust scrutiny and allowing a flurry of mergers and acquisitions to proceed unfettered. The election result, along with the stock market’s exuberant response, could light up the exit market like the Fourth of July, signaling private companies to finally go public.

While many Silicon Valley VCs and founders are not big fans of Trump, their industry thrives when startups are acquired or go public quickly. The Biden administration has clamped down heavily on tech mergers and acquisitions, so Trump’s win could be a financial boon for the sector. There are also hopes and early signs that venture capital investors are more open to putting fresh money into the asset class.

The outcome could be good for startups that have sat on the sidelines for the past few years hoping to go public (and their investors), said Jordan Nof, managing partner of Tusk Venture Partners, an early-stage investor.

Stephen Hays, founder and managing partner of What if Ventures, said money is already moving again. He received two emails from investors Wednesday morning about committing more capital to the deals his union can access. Both said they waited until after the election to start writing bigger checks.

Trump’s return to the White House will spill over into the tech sector in unpredictable and potentially transformative ways, though tech policy has largely been an afterthought this election cycle. In his campaign, Trump focused on the economy to win over swing voters, while Harris presented himself as the candidate who would get across the aisle on housing and immigration.

In the short term, the election result is good for business, one Bay Area investor said. Trump is allied with some famous tech people like Elon Musk, there will likely be more permissive mergers and acquisitions, and the price of bitcoin is at record highs. But there is longer-term uncertainty and questions remain about whether Trump will shake the foundations of the US economy and society, he added.

Big Tech is back at the table

As president, Trump it might turn back some of the antitrust policies that his opponent would have continued. The Biden administration has been a much tougher antitrust enforcer, putting many technology mergers and acquisitions on hold. This trickled down to less technology in the form of fewer completed transactions.

Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan’s tenure could be in jeopardy once Trump takes office in January. She was one of the main drivers of stricter enforcement of antitrust law in technology deals. On Wednesday, Lulu Cheng Meservey, the communications whisperer to tech firms like Y Combinator, he posted on Twitter a photo of Khan with the #OpenToWork badge on LinkedIn.

Nothing is certain about how things will shake out. Trump colleague and former VC JD Vance has said publicly that Khan “does a pretty good job,” referring to her antitrust enforcement of big tech companies.

“I think we’re going to see markets open up again to M&A, a business-first approach,” said Brandon Brooks, a partner at technology investment firm Overlooked Ventures. He added that having a former venture capitalist in the White House – Vance — could bring “a greater focus on the private market” to the presidency.

Investors such as SignalFire founder Chris Farmer and Mason Angel of Industrious Ventures said a more relaxed approach to antitrust enforcement could unlock billions of dollars in outflows for a limited set of founders and venture capitalists who have a vested interest in repurchasing. That’s how they return profits to investors.

Louis Lehot, a partner at Foley & Lardner, expects a respite from the antitrust crackdown to “allow Big Tech buyers to return the table.” He said: “They have been frozen for almost four years, essentially warned not to even try to acquire new companies and in some cases prepare for their looming defenestration.”

The question of how a second Trump term affects the stock market also has far-reaching consequences for technology. Fewer dollars are flowing into the venture capital funds that keep tech firms flush with cash. Limited partners, such as pension and endowment funds that finance venture firms, have been more chosen over months of higher interest rates and a lack of private company exits.

The markets are back on Wednesday, as Trump’s victory ended one of the most controversial presidential elections in modern history. It is not clear how long “Trump’s trade“The boom will last even if conditions for venture firms seeking investment improve soon.

“I think concerns about rates and rising cost of capital make our asset class less attractive if people can earn better rates of return elsewhere,” said Michael Greeley, general partner at Flare Capital Partners.

Crypto wins, climate uncertainty

This election marked the first with artificial intelligence in play, and as president, Trump will have to grapple with how to regulate it. Although he did not publish a detailed political agenda, analysts are expected Trump will ease regulation upwards. His campaign has pledged to repeal a Biden-era executive order that put curbs on technology that some tech conservatives argued went too far.

Trump is also considered bullish on crypto.

The blockchain sector, including many VCs investing in the sector, poured 100 million dollars in this year’s elections. trump card he positioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate, promising to make the US “Crypto Capital of the World”, and vowing to fire Biden-appointed SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who has cracked down on crypto regulation. Trump has also said publicly that he It “It keeps all bitcoin that the US government currently owns or acquires in the future.” Bitcoin rose to a record $75,000 after Trump’s victory was confirmed.

Climate tech investors were more concerned about what a second Trump term would mean for clean energy. Trump’s on-again, off-again support for nuclear power could lead to new legislation to “expand alternative energy sources, particularly by accelerating the deployment of advanced nuclear micro-reactors,” said Brian Garrett, managing director at Crosscut Ventures.

target, google, Microsoft and Amazon all are exploring the use of nuclear power to power their data centers.

Garrett shared tech investor Jenny Fielding’s concern that the new administration could repeal the Inflation Relief Act, a bill that fueled investment in the clean tech sector by providing $369 billion in subsidies to public and private players. He said Trump could withdraw unspent funds crucial to modernizing the country’s energy infrastructure.

“While regulation has always been more progressive in places like Europe, if climate (regulation) under the Biden and the Inflation Reduction Act are rolled back, it could be a significant setback for climate technology companies operating (I hope sell) in the US,” said Fielding, a managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, which invests globally.

In other pockets of the Valley, investors rolled up their sleeves for another day of trading. “People are keeping to themselves and going about their business,” said Conrad Burke, a managing partner at MetaVC Partners.

Leslie Feinzaig, a venture capitalist who became one of the technology packages for Harris, emailed members of the VC group for Kamala on Wednesday morning. “It hurts, of course, but it’s a wound we’re familiar with,” she wrote. “I’ve been here enough times to know what I should do: get up, learn my lesson and get back to work.”