whenever i get At a new job, the first thing I do is call my dad. And the first thing he asks me is: How much are they paying you? This man's passion for dollars and cents runs rampant in the Drummond family. But his keen interest in the size of my paycheck is for very good reason: money runs the world, after all, no matter what. You Is anyone there or not? So, Mr. Drummond says, you can try to make as much as you can.
Putting my inherited distortions aside, WIRED's interest in money is as obvious as it is huge: We cover a trillion-dollar industry, and that industry shapes the way we all live. Gives shape to everything. But who actually has that money? How are they using it? And what does it mean for the rest of us? To find out, we sent some money-loving WIRED journalists to far-flung locales: From the United Arab Emirates to Denmark, Washington, D.C., to terrifying Florida, we brought you some of the best stories documenting money and power. Worked far and wide to bring exclusive WIRED stories. All over the planet.
Finally, a group of editors sat down to assess our lineup. And when we looked at the draft and infographics, we noticed something. The holders of all that money wherever in the world we sent reporters, whatever corner of the technology landscape we covered? Male. To all of them. Everyone. alone. One. Bill Gates, who sat down with Steven Levy to talk about his new memoir (stay tuned) has enjoyed topping the list of the world's richest people for 19 of the last 30 years. Have taken. Of the roughly 30 crypto investors in Trump's inner circle, they are all — wait for it — people. Even the young men who go door-to-door in the Sunshine State selling solar panels with aspirations of becoming millionaires by the age of 30 are men.
So first of all I want to point out: There's more testosterone in this issue of People's Sexiest Man Alive than in any previous decade's editions. To some extent, this is a reality born of circumstances: 87 percent of billionaires worldwide are men, and women are largely, disproportionately, outnumbered in executive positions in the tech industry. None of this begins to account for racial diversity, which paints an even bleaker picture. And this is likely to continue rapidly, as tech giants like Meta and Google scale back their DEI investments. meanwhile, online manosphere– newly lauded by President Trump and his First Buddy Musk – continues to metastasize in scope and impact.
But I will also take ownership. At WIRED, it is our failure of editorial foresight and imagination that we saw the obvious — blatant, relentless masculinity, page after page — only at the last minute. To avoid this, earlier in our recruitment process, it was decided to interrogate wealth accumulation, corporate influence, the sinister and fragmented gender dynamics of power. These are all still, infuriatingly, almost exclusively gendered, with boardroom-commanding baritones, and from centuries past.
Don't get me wrong: You'll enjoy this issue, both in print and online. We hope you'll learn a thing or two about how big bucks are being collected and spent in tech, and the people—men—who are collecting and spending them. But from the one woman in charge to everyone out there, including those featured in our pages: It may be a rich man's world for now, but trust me, women love money too. And we're coming to get some of yours.
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