Elon Musk, AI and the antichrist: the biggest tech stories of 2025
Hello, and welcome to TechScape.I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy and healthy end of the year.I myself have a cold.Today, we are looking back at the biggest stories in tech of 2025 – Elon Musk’s political rise, burst and fall; artificial intelligence’s subsumption of the global economy, all other technology, and even the Earth’s topography; Australia’s remarkable social media ban; the tech industry’s new Trumpian politics; and, as a treat, a glimpse of the apocalypse offered by one of Silicon Valley’s savviest and strangest billionaires.At the close of 2024, I wrote that Elon Musk’s support of Donald Trump had made him the world’s most powerful unelected man.
In 2025, his reign turned out to be short-lived.He rose fast and haphazardly, like a whizzing firework, only to explode spectacularly in June when he claimed in a post on X that the president of the United States was named in the government’s files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Even in that short period of less than six months, Musk made a tremendous impact.He tore up wide swaths of the US government – tens of thousands of jobs, the security of extremely sensitive data, and entire agencies like USAid – that may never be stitched back together.After Doge imploded, Musk promised to turn back to his business empire, which saw great success and great failures alike in 2025.
His rocket company SpaceX saw continued growth and is poised to conduct an initial public offering next year, perhaps as the most valuable private company in the world.Electric carmaker Tesla, by contrast, faced violent backlash and major competition from its Chinese counterparts, which produced cheaper and more advanced vehicles while Tesla’s innovation and inventory stagnated.These headwinds caused a global sales slump for Musk’s carmaker.Look back at our reporting on Doge, Tesla, SpaceX, Musk himself:The ‘department of government efficiency’How an obscure US government office has become a target of Elon MuskHow Elon Musk’s billionaire Doge lieutenant took over the US’s biggest MDMA company | Technology | The GuardianThe chaos Elon Musk and Doge are leaving behind in WashingtonTesla faces backlash over Musk’s politicsEggings, swastikas and dog poop: Tesla bears brunt of people’s ire against Musk‘I’m selling the Nazi mobile’: Tesla owners offload cars after Musk’s fascist-style salutesLook ahead: SpaceX expands in preparation for 2026 IPOInside Elon Musk’s plan to rain SpaceX’s rocket debris over Hawaii’s pristine watersElon Musk’s SpaceX ‘preparing for flotation that could value it at over $1tn’Artificial intelligence has gone from a niche within tech to the industry’s most prominent focus.The Magnificent Seven – Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla – are investing hundreds of billions of dollars into new software that they hope will do the bulk of humanity’s work before too long.
The investment is driving the bulk of the growth of the US’s economy, giving rise to fears of a financial bubble and its popping.The US and China are locked in a cold war-esque race against each other, with startups in each country vying for cutting-edge breakthroughs, as governments around the world are forced to decide how they will regulate a new technological force.Before AI can arrive at that future, though, it needs brains a la the Tin Man of The Wizard of Oz.Those brains come in the form of datacenters.These massive buildings, which house the millions and millions of semiconductor chips booming AI development, have cropped up around the world, met with enthusiasm from leaders eager for tax revenue and deep concern from environmental advocates and, increasingly, local community members.
The investment in and construction of datacenters wrought huge change in the physical landscape of the Earth in 2025 as tens of billions of dollars chased any available land, electricity, water and semiconductor chips.More from our reporting in the last year:DatacentersThe AI boom is heralding a new gold rush in the American westRevealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areasThe future of AIWhat will your life look like in 2035?‘It’s going much too fast’: the inside story of the race to create the ultimate AIMultitrillion-dollar valuationsIs AI a bubble that’s about to pop? – podcastWhat is new in UK-US tech deal and what will it mean for the British economy?But does it work?Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AIElon Musk made a full-throated and whole-hearted embrace of Donald Trump in 2024 and 2025.He was not alone.Many of his fellows in Silicon Valley did the same, sitting beside the Trump family at the president’s inauguration after donating millions to his inaugural committee.The tech giants continued their embrace of Trump and his policies by scuttling their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which they championed during Barack Obama’s presidency, and by cooperating with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown.
What the industry gave, it reaped tenfold in deregulation, friends high up in Washington like JD Vance and David Sacks, and a Trump order for states not to regulate AI signed just weeks ago.More from our reporting this year:Donations and Trump’s inaugurationElon Musk appears to give fascist-style salute after Trump inauguration – videoTrump inauguration: Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk seated in front of cabinet picks‘The reign of terror is over’: my weird weekend partying with the triumphant tech rightDEI scuttledZuckerberg’s swerve: how diversity went from being a Meta priority to getting cancelledImmigrants surveilledDocuments offer rare insight on ICE’s close relationship with PalantirICE is using smartwatches to track pregnant women, even during labor: ‘She was so afraid they would take her baby’This year saw Australia take the extraordinary measure of banning children under 16 from social media.The remarkable measure went into effect just weeks ago after a slew of legal challenges and protests from tech companies.Read some of our comprehensive reporting on the ban:Millions of children and teens lose access to accounts as Australia’s world-first social media ban beginsThe Guardian view on Australia’s social media ban: dragging tech companies into action | EditorialAustralia’s social media ban launched with barely a hitch – but the real test is still to comeIn the weirdest news of 2025, the billionaire venture capitalist and conservative svengali Peter Thiel gave a series of fevered, incoherent lectures about the antichrist and the coming of the end times.We obtained leaked audio of the talks.
You can read for yourself the gibberish he uses to bend the ears of serious academics and San Francisco startup CEOs alike or, if you’d prefer not to give your attention directly to him, engage with a sharp critical interpretation by a professor hailing from the same university as Thiel’s mentor.Our stories on the gospel according to Peter:Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichristPeter Thiel’s off-the-record antichrist lectures reveal more about him than Armageddon | Adrian Daub
Keir Starmer told closer EU trade ties ‘strategic necessity’ for UK firms
Keir Starmer’s government has been told a closer EU trade deal is a “strategic necessity” for companies in Britain as growing numbers of exporters find it tougher to do business under the UK’s post-Brexit agreement.Calling on Labour to accelerate its reset with Brussels, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the UK’s existing trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) was failing to help them grow their sales in the EU.More than half (54%) of exporters in a survey of almost 1,000 businesses – the majority of which were small and medium-sized firms – said the trade deal negotiated by Boris Johnson’s government and enacted in 2021 was not helping them.Highlighting an ongoing economic hit from Brexit, the BCC said this was a 13 percentage point increase from the proportion of firms that were unhappy in a similar survey a year earlier.Adding to pressure on Labour to take action to support the economy after a challenging year for businesses, it said that just four out of the 946 firms surveyed thought the support from the government on dealing with trade policy changes was comprehensive
Labour calls to rejoin EU customs union will become harder for Starmer to resist
When Keir Starmer stood on the Labour conference stage in 2018 and defied Jeremy Corbyn to call for a second Brexit referendum with remain as an option, it put him in pole position to become the next Labour leader.Starmer must now feel a sense of deja vu watching Wes Streeting, the most out-and-out pretender for the leadership, follow a similar playbook. In an interview over the weekend, the health secretary strayed from the official government line to call for “a deeper trading relationship” with the EU.Speaking to the Observer, Streeting implied that joining a customs union with Europe would give Labour a distinctive message with which to take on Nigel Farage at the next general election.To many Westminster observers, the obvious point is that, like Starmer’s intervention in 2018, Streeting’s remarks align him with the Labour members and voters who overwhelmingly support stronger ties with Europe
More than 75% of Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters think PM should open talks on joining EU customs union – as it happened
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, used an interview with the Observer published at the weekend to suggest that he favours joining a customs union with the EU. This is something that Keir Starmer has ruled out.But Labour supporters back Streeting on this. According to YouGov polling for the Times, 80% of people who voted Labour at the last general election say a future leader should open negotiations on joining a customs union with the EU.The polling also found that around 70% of people who voted Labour, Lib Dem or Green at the last election said that a future leader should open talks on rejoining the EU
Rachel Reeves sets early March date for spring statement as OBR prepares forecast
Rachel Reeves has set a date of 3 March for an early spring statement, as Labour attempts to draw a line under a year of tax speculation that business leaders blamed for damaging Britain’s economy.Announcing a date to prioritise “stability and certainty”, the Treasury said the chancellor had asked the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare forecasts for the economy and public finances.Reeves has come under fire over the buildup to this year’s autumn budget after months of leaks, briefings and tax speculation contributed to a downturn in consumer spending and businesses freezing their investment plans.Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank in October, while the Bank of England forecasts that growth is on track to flatline in the fourth quarter. Business groups have also warned of a sharp fall in private sector activity at the turn of the year, with companies putting their spending decisions and hiring plans on hold
Britain’s economy has been damaged by Brexit. But what should ministers do about it?
Almost a decade on from the Brexit vote, the verdict is clear. Britain’s immediate doomsday economic scenario might not have come to pass. But after years of political paralysis – and with the eventual introduction of tougher trade barriers in 2020 – trade, investment and growth in living standards have all suffered.Just as it was on the morning after the 2016 referendum, the big fight is about what the government should do in response.At the weekend, Wes Streeting became the latest frontbench Labour politician to call for a deeper trading relationship with the EU
Streeting urges closer trading ties with Europe to grow UK economy
A deeper trading relationship with the EU would be the best way of growing Britain’s economy, which has an “uncomfortable” level of tax, Wes Streeting has said.The health secretary said it would not be possible for any partnership with the EU to “return to freedom of movement”, but his comments appeared to leave the door open to the idea of a customs union.His remarks on the EU appear to go further than the government’s position, which has ruled out a customs union as it seeks deeper trading relations with Brussels. Some in the cabinet would like No 10 to go further in its ambitions in order to improve the UK economy.Streeting spoke out about the EU, the economy and his own ambitions in a wide-ranging interview with the Observer, while stressing that he was not after Keir Starmer’s job
A meat-free Christmas: Chantelle Nicholson’s French mushroom pie, caramelised pear pud and more
10 of the best Australian sparkling wines for every budget
Cosmopolitan Christmas: Stosie Madi’s French-African-Lebanese Christmas lunch – recipes
From a showstopping pavlova to a £7 sherry: what top chefs bring to Christmas dinner
A fresh take on wine pairings for Christmas dessert
How to eat, drink and be merry – while pregnant – at Christmas