Some billionaires are joining the Trump administration. Others are contemplating leaving the country.
Laurene Powell Jobs, who is one of the richest people in the world and who backed her close friend, Kamala Harris, in the presidential race, is trying to project optimism.
Two weeks after the election, Ms. Powell Jobs gave a rare peek into her philanthropy work at an event called Demo Day, where 10 people whose ideas she has supported financially presented their work in Ted Talk-like speeches.
The objective is to connect people who she believes have promising ideas with people who have money and influence. There is a hint of the “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list, but Ms. Powell Jobs promoted social justice causes and scientific research rather than jewelry or kitchen appliances.
Her chosen speakers in downtown San Francisco this year shared their ideas about climate change, women’s health, immigration, the creation of prosthetics and education in Africa to a theater full of venture capitalists, philanthropists and technology executives.
What they did not do was mention the name Donald J. Trump. Granted, the event was planned months before the election, but the results, which many people in the country’s most liberal bastions consider disastrous, might have been expected to come up. They did not.
There was just one rule at the event: “Cheer loudly!”
Ms. Powell Jobs, whose late husband was the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, controls a fortune worth $11 billion and has an array of interests in which she invests.
In 2017, she purchased the majority of The Atlantic magazine. Through her company, Emerson Collective, she both supports nonprofits and makes venture capital investments in private companies. Her interests, which are largely liberal, include gun control, prison reform, ending racism and curbing pollution. Her goal, she explains, is to fund people who are “taking big swings” to improve the world.
She took a big swing herself during the election. A top aide of hers circulated polling data to help nudge President Biden out of the race, and Ms. Powell Jobs quietly contributed millions to an organization backing Ms. Harris.
Ms. Powell Jobs is a private person who mostly avoids the press and social media. She has not posted on X since May 2020 when she called America “Diverse. Positive. Resourceful. And infused with hope.”
As a parade of billionaire entrepreneurs including Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and even more liberal-leaning Mark Cuban has congratulated Mr. Trump on his win, Ms. Powell Jobs has not joined the president-elect’s cheering squad.
She said nothing about Mr. Trump at her event, stressing instead that the work she was highlighting must simply march on. In an interview in the theater’s green room afterward, she seemed calm and sanguine about the incoming White House administration.
She said climate change innovations, for example, can be profitable and beneficial to businesses, so the private sector will keep supporting them regardless of who is president.
“I don’t know that it’s going to be that difficult,” she said, leaning against a counter laden with fruit baskets and hot tea. “I think there are always ways to find common ground and to find things that we agree on, and in many ways, people will just continue the work.”
Ms. Powell Jobs said she had the idea for Demo Day after attending similar events, including those hosted by Y Combinator, an incubator for tech start-ups.
“Humans are very clever and creative and want to build. It’s in our DNA,” she said. “That is also an inspiring thing for people who are perhaps feeling a little discouraged about political divides.”
Even prominent Democrats at the event said nothing about the election results or the nominations for the incoming administration, at least not from the stage.
Joe Kennedy III, the former congressman from Massachusetts and the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, was at the event, helping to introduce the speakers and the music performers. In the past, he has said he has “very deep differences” with his uncle, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spread conspiracy theories about vaccines and who is Mr. Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary. But none of that came up at Ms. Powell Jobs’s event, at least not publicly.
Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for former President Obama and the head of communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, got a laugh when she referred to “the very busy election season” with an emphasis on the word busy. She raised her eyebrow at the audience as if to suggest she had a different adjective in mind.
Ms. Powell Jobs began the event with a brief greeting from the stage before taking a seat in the second row. She appeared onstage once more for a conversation with Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, which dominates the market for computer chips used to build artificial intelligence.
The longtime friends discussed how Mr. Huang’s company had ousted Apple to become the world’s most valuable technology company. They did not talk about what Mr. Trump’s promised tariffs might mean for the global supply chain.
Ms. Powell Jobs mostly kept things light, asking Mr. Huang fun questions like: If you could have dinner with someone you’ve never met, who would that be? He struggled to answer, finally spitting out MC Hammer.
Later, in the green room, Ms. Powell Jobs said her own answer would be Nelson Mandela if he were still alive.
And then she was off, a smile firmly planted on her face.
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