DEI Programs

In January 2026, Andreessen Horowitz hired Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran acquitted in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless street performer. The hire was widely seen as a political statement. Andreessen himself framed the firm's controversies as providing 'this incredible competitive advantage' for attracting founders who want to work with investors who are 'brave.'

In October 2025, the Python Software Foundation unanimously voted to withdraw from a $1.5 million NSF research grant that required affirming the PSF would not operate any DEI programs during the grant period. Van Rossum publicly endorsed the decision, writing 'kudos to the PSF for standing for its values (which are also my values)' and backed it with a personal donation.

T-Mobile ended all DEI policies 'not just in name, but in substance' in July 2025, while seeking FCC approval for $4.4B US Cellular acquisition. The company eliminated DEI roles/teams, removed DEI references from websites and training materials, and dissolved diversity councils. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called it a 'cowardly capitulation' and 'cynical bid to win FCC regulatory approval.'

ASML, the world's largest chipmaking equipment manufacturer, scrapped inclusion and diversity targets in the US following Trump administration pressure on DEI programs. The company was among several Dutch firms rethinking diversity policies in response to US decrees.

In June 2025, Netflix shareholders voted overwhelmingly (over 99%) to reject anti-DEI proposals brought by a conservative shareholder group. Netflix's 2025 10-K filing stated the company works to 'build diversity, inclusion and equity into all aspects of our operations globally.' The board stated the anti-DEI proposal was 'unnecessary.'

Microsoft has contributed over $17 million to organizations advancing LGBTQ+ equity, dignity, and human rights, including $1.3 million in the last year and a $100,000 Pride 2025 donation. The company was the first Fortune 500 company to provide same-sex domestic partnership benefits in 1993 and one of the first to include sexual orientation in its corporate non-discrimination policy. The GLEAM employee resource group drives LGBTQ+ inclusion across the organization.

In May 2025, while other tech vendors distanced themselves from DEI strategies after Donald Trump's re-election, ARM Holdings maintained its commitment with Chief DEI Officer Tamika Curry Smith publicly explaining why DEI should remain a core facet of technology businesses. ARM has embedded DEI into operations through ArmUnited coalition, requiring every employee to set a DEI goal alongside work goals. In 2024-2025, ARM achieved an 82% inclusion score in worldwide employee surveys.

SAP announced it would cut several diversity programs to comply with US requirements under Trump administration. Changes include eliminating female leadership quotas in the US, removing gender diversity from executive compensation metrics, merging the D&I department with corporate social responsibility, and dropping the target of 40% female employees. The move followed letters from the US embassy to German businesses.

In leaked WhatsApp messages to a group chat with White House officials and tech leaders (July 2025), Marc Andreessen said universities will 'pay the price' for promoting diversity. He called Stanford and MIT 'mainly political lobbying operations fighting American innovation.'

Unlike Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, Nvidia under Jensen Huang has not announced cuts to DEI programs as of May 2025. The company maintained its Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives in its 2024 Sustainability Report. However, Nvidia has decreased workforce diversity data transparency since 2022, lagging peers like AMD and Intel.

In 2025, Intel dramatically reduced its DEI language in corporate reports and removed diversity targets from SEC 10-K filings. This represented a major rollback from 2020 goals including achieving 40% women in technical roles and doubling women/underrepresented minorities in senior leadership by 2030. Intel had previously stated 'Diversity, equity, and inclusion have long been Intel's core values and are instrumental to driving innovation and delivering strong business growth.'

In April 2025, Adobe's Chief People Officer announced the company would 'discontinue' DEI hiring targets, ending 'aspirational representational goals' set in 2020. These had included doubling Black representation and increasing women in leadership to 30% by 2025. The company's Corporate Responsibility page was also removed from the website after Trump's January 2025 executive order targeting DEI.

Ericsson faced criticism in Sweden after removing all references to DEI from its 2024 annual report. The word 'DEI' appeared 0 times compared to 40+ times in 2023. Previous initiatives like 42 employee resource groups, gender diversity goals tied to executive compensation, and inclusive leadership training were absent. The company denied Trump administration influence, claiming changes were 'for greater clarity.'

Oracle removed all mentions of the word 'diversity' from its corporate communications. The company also withdrew promised scholarship funding to the Urban League. On September 25, 2024, Oracle had confirmed a $20,000 contribution to support Urban League's educational initiatives, but later withdrew following internal DEI policy shifts.

While many tech companies rolled back DEI under Trump pressure, Wise implemented stronger governance structure across all 13 global DEI communities in 2025. Programs include Women Circles (speaker-led networking), Women in Product events, and investment in senior women and non-binary external community. Gender pay gap reduced from 19.54% to 14.54% mean, 18.4% to 12.67% median.

Starling Bank reported progress on gender diversity: over a third of new hires between April 2024 and April 2025 were women (up from 24%), and the median pay gap reduced from 9.1% to 8.4%. Senior management gender representation exceeds both the fintech industry average (30%) and UK banking average (40%). The bank is a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter.

In April 2025, IBM eliminated its DEI department and Diversity Council (established in the 1990s), stopped linking executive compensation to workforce diversity targets, and altered its supplier diversity program. The changes came after conservative activist Robby Starbuck contacted IBM in February and Heritage Foundation filed a shareholder proposal. CEO Arvind Krishna announced the changes via memo and video to employees.

Atlassian presents the Women Leading Tech Awards, an industry initiative supporting gender parity inclusive of non-binary and gender diverse members of tech. The company offers 26 weeks paid leave for birthing parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents. Atlassian conducts yearly pay equity audits, partners with Code2College, /dev/color, and AI4All for underrepresented groups, and operates 9 employee resource groups including Atlassian Pride.

Uber stopped using DEI goals for executive compensation, dropped promises to include women and minority candidates when filling board seats, and removed statistics about board diversity from its 2025 proxy statement. The company's 2024 annual report omitted sections about diversity efforts and didn't mention the word 'diversity' at all.

On March 5, 2025, Salesforce filed its annual report removing all references to DEI, diversity hiring targets, and language about diversity being a 'core value'. The section was renamed 'Equality' and now only discusses legal compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Previously, Salesforce had goals to increase underrepresented minority leadership by 50% and achieve 40% women/non-binary representation by 2026.