- Mark Zuckerberg divided the internet when he gifted Priscilla Chan a 7-foot Roman statue of herself.
- It's another example of how tech bros aren't necessarily interested in modern gift trends.
An adage says brides should have something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue on their wedding day.
But when it comes to tech bros and the types of gifts they like to give and receive, it's all about the "something old."
Tech workers are some of the highest earners in the US. Business Insider's Aaron Mok reported in March that a Dice study showed tech employees made an average annual salary of $111,193 in 2023—nearly double the amount the average full-time US worker makes, according to salary data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So what do you get the tech bro in your life who can buy themselves any of the status symbols men are obsessed with nowadays without draining their bank accounts?
Lupe Puerta, the former global head of personal shopping at Net-a-Porter, said the answer is history.
Puerta, who joined Net-a-Porter in 2004 and left in 2019 to launch a personal shopping platform, The Floorr, told Business Insider that, from her experience, Silicon Valley types don't follow current fashion and lifestyle trends.
Tech bros want to own pieces of the past no one else can have
"I'm sure there are people that are like, 'Look at my watch, and this is how much I'm worth,'" she began, "but I think beyond that, it's buying and having access to something really special that has a lot of meaning."
As recent examples over the years show, that usually translates to something old.
In 2019, during Reddit's annual Secret Santa gift exchange, Bill Gates gave an array of collectible items and a manuscript copy of "The Great Gatsby," featuring notes hand-scrawled by F. Scott Fitzgerald while he was writing the 1925 bestseller.
Jeff Bezos reportedly bought himself a 1964 Ed Ruscha painting in a Christie's auction for $52.5 million the following year.
A year after that, tech billionaire Larry Ellison temporarily loaned two Vincent Van Gogh paintings he personally owns to an exhibition on the artist — a priceless gift to the art world.
And take a more recent example: the opinion-dividing seven-foot Roman-inspired statue Mark Zuckerberg gifted his wife, Priscilla Chan, in August.
It may not be old, but as Zuckerberg indicated in the caption of his Instagram post, the gift was intended to symbolize an Ancient Roman tradition of gifting wives statues of themselves.
"Imagine the amount of money that must have cost," Puerta said. "It's like buying a museum piece."
Puerto added that the gift proves that these high-earners feel a certain "thrill of owning" or gifting someone something that doesn't exist in most modern designer stores.
Representatives for Zuckerberg, Gates, and Ellison did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tech bros want to own a piece of history
From her experience, tech bros tend to gravitate to collectibles, "everything from alcohol to cars," and things like historical watches worn by historical figures, such as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It's like "buying history," she said.
Puerta noticed that male clients love Oktaaf, a popular European brand. Started by a Spanish jeweler and a Belgian entrepreneur, the brand buys archaeological "pieces from Egypt" and creates jewelry around the ancient finds.
As of September, one of the most expensive pieces listed on the company's website is a $6,500 bracelet made from a 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifact brushed with an 18-karat gold finish.
"It's incredible," Puerta said, adding that most of Oktaaf's "clients are men."
So, if you have a tech bro in your life, don't say I didn't warn you what they might have on their holiday gift lists.