The photograph is now famous: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, seated side by side in the front row at Donald Trump's inauguration. At the time it symbolized a bargain between the richest men on Earth and the most powerful. This week, after Tuesday's midterm elections, the same image reads differently, more like a list of targets than a portrait of triumph. The bargain had paid off handsomely.

While Trump seemed an unbeatable kingmaker and the expansion of artificial intelligence seemed unstoppable, the fortunes of tech leaders swelled beyond ordinary comprehension; Musk's passed $1tn. But Democrats have now taken decisive control of Congress, winning seats once assumed safe for Republicans, and governors' mansions turned blue even in deeply conservative states such as Texas. Analysts suggest several forces were at work. Voters worried about corruption appear to have punished candidates seen as serving oligarchs.

Resentment of the AI boom, of the datacenters that power it, and of Flock surveillance cameras may also have shifted the mood. Representative Greg Casar argued that Republicans lost partly because AI billionaires had "bought and paid for" them, and he urged his own party not to cash the same checks. The rhetoric from victors was sharp. Senator Jon Ossoff, re-elected in Georgia, promised to bring "big tech to heel", while Senator Ed Markey joked that forests would need replanting to supply paper for all the subpoenas.