I've stated this a few times, but one of Microsoft's biggest misteps in the 90's, and there weren't that many, was its absolute lack of any political lobbying.
There are alot of very politically connected people who pointed out that if Microsoft had of "played the game" that the chances of their anti trust trial actually happening would have been alot less.
Google and Facebook learned this lesson well and now spend on lobbying at a rate that would make wall street blush and is on par with the heaviest lobbyist out there. it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the new tech elite are the real Washington insiders.
Just look at what Uber and AirBnb spend on lobbing.
Given this, it makes sense that if you were in a new industry with the rules being created all around you, you'd want to control the narrative as much as possible.
I'd argue that Silicon Valley now dominates even wall street in terms of buying political influence in the US nowadays.
To bring an example back to my Canadian roots, The Toronto Maple Leafs hired the man who wrote the NHL's Collective Bargining Agreement with the players to better have an advantage when writing player contracts.