Many of them are, actually. See: https://www.spur.org/

A fair number of tech companies donate to SPUR, which does policy analysis/writing, advocacy, etc., including Dropbox, Salesforce, Netflix, and others.

That said, I was disappointed to see last year that Google apparently joined about the month I did (as opposed to, say, a decade ago) and were donating at some small level (sub-50k/year, Microsoft was in a higher donation bracket ffs). The amount of fighting Google is willing to do in Mountain View while ignoring the rest of the bay astounds me.

https://www.spur.org/publications/urbanist-article/2017-08-2...

https://www.spur.org/join-renew-give/business-membership/spu...

Plus with respect to Google there's this: https://www.curbed.com/2017/12/5/16738120/google-san-jose-ca...

Google’s plans may turn Diridon Station—an expanding transit hub with a high-speed rail stop in the works—into the Grand Central of the west. The move could catalyze an even more urbanized San Jose, and signal that density transit-oriented development is part of the Valley’s future.

The developing urban core of the largest city in Silicon Valley, a region stuck in a mostly suburban mindset, adjacent to what will be the confluence of seven different rail and bus lines.

Agreed entirely. It's shameful how big tech corporations have not been doing enough to champion better housing and transportation in the neighborhoods they are located in, while spending feel good PR initiatives on endeavors abroad, or lobbying in D.C. for regulation that benefits them directly.

The Bay Area big tech companies are putting a lot into housing.

This article is about a big-ish tech company championing YIMBY. Google is building 10,000 housing units ( https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/12/googles-massive-housi... ), Facebook is building 1,500 ( https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/07/investing-in-menlo-park... ) and Apple put forward $75 million to improve transit in Cupertino ( http://www.cupertino.org/home/showdocument?id=15623 ).

Off topic, but curious who all the Larrys and Marcs are?

I'm guessing Page, Ellison, Zuck, Andreesen, ...

But that leaves another Marc?

Benioff.

I figured that it's only fair to call out multi billionaires who are currently running companies/funds. While Andreessen is supposedly not much richer than PC, Marc is rather more liquid, runs a huge VC firm, and his father in law is kind of a big deal in Valley commercial real estate.