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Broligarchy is aneologism andportmanteau combiningoligarchy andbroism describing the rule of government by a coterie ofextremely wealthy men (occupying leadership roles in thetech companies and tech-enabled businesses) who are perceived by the public astech bros.^[1][2][3] It is also known astech oligarchy.^[4][5][6]

According toProspect magazine, "Broligarchy appears in surfer language in the early 2000s “when a small group of bros run a break”—referring to locals controlling a surf spot."^[7][8] The modern use of the termsbroligarch andbroligarchy can be traced to a Twitter post in 2009.^[1][9] Broligarchy appeared onUrban Dictionary in 2011.^[10] The terms gained wide adoption on social media during the2024 US presidential election and thesecond Trump presidency.^[8] In a tweet onX in March 2024,Condé Nast editor Luke Zaleski calledElon Musk "the world's first broligarch".^[11][12]

The term broligarch was first used in themainstream media in late July 2024 in a news article inThe Observer by the British journalistCarole Cadwalladr.^[13]

In early August 2024, the termbroligarch appeared in the title of articles inthe Atlantic magazine byBrooke Harrington^[14] and in the English edition ofAl Majalla by Bryn Haworth.^[15] The subsequent months saw a flurry of media usage following the2024 US presidential election in November of the same year^[2][16] and thesecond inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2025.^{[17][18][19][20][21]}

Since August 2025, the words broligarch^[22] and broligarchy^[23] have been officially included in theCambridge Dictionary.^[24]

In the 2021 bookThe Tyranny of Big Tech,Republican Party politician and seniorUnited States Senate member ofMissouriJosh Hawley argued that major technology companies likeGoogle,Facebook,Amazon, andApple have become tech oligarchs with overwhelming economic and political power. He describes these companies as modern-dayrobber barons who are draining prosperity and power from the middle class and creating a new oligarchy.^[25]Critics claimed that Hawley's book contained factual errors^[26] and accused him of using the book as a launching pad for his own political career.^[27]

• Technocracy – Form of government ruled by experts
• Plutocracy – Society controlled by the wealthiest citizens
• Bromance – Close but non-sexual relationship between two or more men
• Neo-feudalism – Theoretic rebirth of antique governance
• Glossary of surfing
• Tech–industrial complex

• Kotkin, Joel (2014).The new class conflict. Candor, NY: Telos Press Publishing.ISBN 978-0-914386-28-5.
• Foroohar, Rana (2019).Don't be evil: how big tech betrayed its founding principles - and all of us. New York: Currency.ISBN 978-1-9848-2398-4.
• Moisio, Sami; Rossi, Ugo (2024).The Urban Field. Capital and Governmentality in the Age of Techno-Monopoly. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Agenda.ISBN 978-1-7882-1450-6.
• Petit, Nicolas (2020).Big Tech and the Digital Economy: The Moligopoly Scenario. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-883770-1.
• Hawley, Joshua (2021).The tyranny of big tech. Washington, D.C:Regnery Publishing.ISBN 978-1-9821-3894-3.
• Suarez-Villa, Luis (2023).Technology and Oligopoly Capitalism. New York: Routledge.doi:10.4324/9781003345893.ISBN 978-1-003-34589-3.
• Norden, Lawrence; Weiner, Daniel I. (2025-02-12)."The Rise of America's Broligarchy and What to Do About It".TIME.

• 2020s neologisms
• Political culture
• Oligarchy

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
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