25 Best Tech Books to Gift (2025): Biographies, Startup Histories, Exposés

Featured successful this article

• Chip Chase

  

  Courtesy of Viking

  The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip

  by Stephen Witt

  Charting Nvidia’s emergence to go 1 of the most invaluable companies connected Earth, this biography of cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang is acquisition and entertaining. Witt explains however the institution spun GPU (graphics processing units) manufacturing for gaming into parallel processing and a matrimony of hardware and bundle that has powered the emergence of AI. It has besides made Huang precise rich, but helium isn’t ever painted successful a flattering light, which helps to counterbalance the laminitis worship vibe.

  For a somewhat antithetic presumption connected Nvidia's history, effort The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim.

• The Early Days of the Computer

  

  Courtesy of Back Bay Books

  The Soul of a New Machine

  by Tracy Kidder

  A well-deserved victor of the Pulitzer Prize, this publication should beryllium required speechmaking for anyone who works successful exertion oregon harbors a curiosity astir however it came to predominate our lives. First published successful 1981, the publication reveals the interior workings of Data General successful the 1970s arsenic the institution strives to plan and merchandise a palmy next-generation minicomputer. Kidder captures the conflict betwixt absorption and creatives and weaves a fascinating communicative from an ostensibly adust subject. He explains the aggravated clip unit connected engineers that led to a changeless authorities of crunch, the request for recruits to consciousness similar they are moving connected thing important they person immoderate involvement in, and the science of enactment intent connected realizing ambitious projects. It is positively prescient astir the dangers of burnout for the unsung heroes who sacrifice truthful overmuch to physique caller machines.

  Follow this up with WIRED’s nonfiction chatting with immoderate of the subjects successful the publication 20 years aft it was published (this nonfiction itself is present much than 20 years old).

• Evil Twin

  

  Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World

  by Naomi Klein

  This fascinating dive down the rabbit spread of Covid conspiracy is ostensibly astir however radical confuse Naomi Klein with Naomi Wolf. Klein is simply a leftist journalist and clime activist; Wolf was a third-wave feminist but is present a rabid anti-vaxxer.

  If you’re inactive puzzled implicit the convergence of wellness and the far-right oregon wondering wherefore truthful galore mean folks are swallowing the benignant of misinformation that breeds racism and clime denialism, Klein has immoderate convincing answers. This is challenging and sometimes bleak reading, but it was besides the astir important publication of 2023. It's brutally honest, calling retired the absurdities of capitalism and the relation societal media has played successful the emergence of narcissism.

• An Icon

  

  Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

  by Walter Isaacson

  Released conscionable 19 days aft the decease of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, this astonishing biography takes a heavy dive into his beingness and goes immoderate mode toward explaining his enduring legacy. Isaacson was picked by Jobs himself, who granted much than 40 interviews to his biographer and reportedly exerted nary power implicit the last edit. Jobs’ aggravated passionateness and ambition saw him successfully wed originative ideas with technological innovations and merchantability them to the wide public. This is an accessible publication that ne'er gets excessively technical. It insightfully charts the emergence of Apple and Pixar and the improvement of the Mac, iTunes, the iPhone, and the iPad. While it is flattering astatine times, Jobs’ ruthlessness is not sugar-coated, and anyone with much than a passing involvement successful the antheral indispensable work this book.

  For a little Jobs-centric exploration of the Mac’s development, work Revolution successful The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made, by Andy Hertzfeld.

• Cancel Culture

  

  Courtesy of Picador

  So You've Been Publicly Shamed

  by Jon Ronson

  The acheronian broadside of the internet’s hive caput is brought into crisp alleviation by Ronson’s formed of characters—all person been publically shamed via the internet. From the fascinating communicative of Jonah Lehrer’s plagiarism to the vilification of Justine Sacco aft an ill-advised gag tweet decried arsenic racist, Ronson digs into the stories down the scandals and looks astatine the havoc relentless online shaming tin wreak. The publication is simply a amusive and fascinating look astatine however shame, empowered by societal media, is simply a forceful signifier of societal power with real-life consequences.

• Google's Machinings

  

  Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

  In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives

  by Steven Levy

  I could person easy included a fewer entries from WIRED's ain Steven Levy connected this list, from his hugely influential 1984 debut, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, to his astir caller release, Facebook: The Inside Story, but I’ve chosen In the Plex. Despite the interaction of Google, a institution whose sanction has go a verb, astir of america cognize small astir its interior workings. This is the champion publication to work if you privation to alteration that. Levy secured unprecedented entree to service up a fascinating dive into what makes Google tick, what drove palmy enlargement into caller areas, and however the institution and its products person changed the world.

  If you privation more, How Google Works, by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, offers immoderate penetration into absorption astatine the company.

• Resisting Big Tech

  

  Courtesy of Verso

  The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation

  by Cory Doctorow

  I retrieve erstwhile the net was good, earlier we got trapped successful walled gardens and large tech enactment the thumbscrews connected america to extract each past cent. Cory Doctorow’s wonderfully evocative “theory of enshittification” is wide accepted present and progressively communal everywhere you look. He reckons interoperability mightiness conscionable beryllium the antidote, and portion his crisp critiques are much afloat formed than his suggested solutions, astatine slightest he’s trying to connection immoderate hope.

• The Rise and Fall of Theranos

  

  Courtesy of Vintage

  Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies successful a Silicon Valley Startup

  by John Carreyrou

  Noble aims and earthy ambition are lauded successful the tech world, often attracting praise and investment, but what happens erstwhile a task goes wrong?

  Building connected Wall Street Journal newsman Carreyrou’s shocking exposé of Theranos, this publication follows charismatic laminitis Elizabeth Holmes arsenic she tries and fails to physique a humor investigating instrumentality to expanse distant the request for hypodermic needles, with the committedness of close tests done from a driblet oregon 2 of humor via a pinprick connected the finger. Although the institution raised hundreds of millions of dollars, its exertion was horribly inaccurate. Rather than admit defeat, it pressed on, which is wherefore Holmes was enactment on proceedings for fraud and sentenced to 11 years successful prison. The publication highlights the dangers of the fashionable “fake it till you marque it” approach. Theranos reached a insubstantial valuation of $9 cardinal and employed much than 800 radical earlier its spectacular fall.

• Generative AI

  

  Courtesy of Wildfire

  You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place

  by Janelle Shane

  If you can't assistance but ponder astir artificial quality these days, you'll get a footwear retired of this book. It delves into machine-learning algorithms and their limitations successful an accessible, engaging, and often hilarious way.

  Shane is the probe idiosyncratic down the comical AI Weirdness blog, and she does a coagulated occupation of demystifying AI, explaining however instrumentality learning truly works, and highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. Although you’ll larn astir things similar generative adversarial networks, the publication ne'er gets dull, acknowledgment to witty and moreish penning peppered with applicable examples of AI attempts astatine creativity that are often laugh-out-loud funny.

• Power Shifts

  

  Courtesy of ‎ W. W. Norton & Company

  The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story

  by Michael Lewis

  Opening connected a computerized superyacht, the talented Michael Lewis takes america connected an escapade into the caput of billionaire Jim Clark, cofounder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics. The publication charts the powerfulness displacement successful Silicon Valley startups from “money men” to “idea men” and engineers.

  Lewis besides attempts to uncover what drives Clark’s endless pursuit of the adjacent happening and his seemingly unquenchable tendency for more. This modern skipper of manufacture is restless, perpetually dissatisfied, and not precise likable. The voyage is an absorbing frame, and determination are echoes of Kidder’s publication successful its subject’s idiosyncrasies and the author’s earnest effort to research what genuinely motivates him.

• AI Race

  

  Courtesy of St. Martin's Press

  Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World

  by Parmy Olson

  The contention to marque AI mainstream is framed arsenic a conflict betwixt CEOs, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Demis Hassabis of DeepMind, but Olson does a bully occupation of showing however seeming idealists with bully intentions tin beryllium swayed by billionaires and extremity up selling out. If you wonderment astir the forces fueling the AI arms race, however bloated valuations person led to governmental power, oregon the laundry database of ethical and ineligible concerns AI raises, you’ll find this publication enlightening.

• Silicon Valley

  

  Courtesy of Penguin Books

  The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America

  by Margaret O'Mara

  If you person ever wondered however specified a tiny suburban country came to predominate the tech world, Margaret O’Mara, a past prof astatine the University of Washington, has immoderate answers. This concise and broad publication weaves unneurotic interviews, biographies, and countless different sources to explicate however Silicon Valley has driven and dominated technological innovation. O’Mara exposes the foundations that self-mythologizing founders and businesses are built on, and the captious relation the authorities played successful their rise.

  Folks seeking an insider’s presumption mightiness like Uncanny Valley: A Memoir, by Anna Wiener.

• Meta's World

  

  Courtesy of Harper Paperbacks

  An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination

  by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

  As the world’s astir fashionable societal web has grown, its dogged pursuit of users and blinkered absorption connected engagement has led to the instauration of a dangerously effectual persuasion machine. This publication reveals that Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and different Facebook execs willingly sacrificed the privacy of their users and shirked immoderate work for fact-checking arsenic they pursued maturation astatine each costs. Facebook stands accused of giving unscrupulous profiteers, politicians, and anyone other consenting to wage the quality to alteration minds astir everything from who to ballot for to whether to get the vaccine. While Zuckerberg and his squad did not acceptable retired to bash this, An Ugly Truth does a large occupation of exposing Facebook's repeated failures to halt others from co-opting the monster they created.

  For a broader look astatine the company’s past and defining moments, work Facebook: The Inside Story, by WIRED's ain Steven Levy.

• For the Lols

  

  Courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing

  Meme Wars: How the Fringe Conquered the Mainstream

  by Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, and Brian Friedberg

  Dismissed by galore arsenic harmless humor, memes person go almighty weapons successful the civilization wars. This fascinating publication digs into the past of memes, examines their adoption by the alt-right and conspiracy theorists, and explains the relation memes play successful radicalization, misinformation, and adjacent extremism. By distilling analyzable issues into seductive wrong jokes, memes dispersed done societal media, sowing societal part and recruiting the disaffected. Well researched and written, this insightful dive into online civilization and its interaction connected modern ideology makes for uncomfortable reading.

• New Work

  

  Courtesy of Back Bay Books

  Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork

  by Reeves Wiedeman

  Tales of occurrence are often inspiring, but nonaccomplishment tin beryllium fascinating too. The illness of WeWork is simply a cautionary communicative astir the bladed enactment betwixt visionary genius and charismatic con artist. It charts the emergence of a existent property institution successful denial. Under the guidance of Adam Neumann, WeWork disrupted the bureau abstraction scene, propelled by an appealing idealism astir gathering community. But portion employees worked agelong hours gathering solid cubicles for workers, Neumann bought houses and jets, and his woman Rebekah tried to commencement an acquisition programme with unrealistic goals. Schadenfreude is simply a portion of the entreaty of this book, but don’t shed a teardrop for Neumann, who walked distant a billionaire and has started different company.

  For much connected this topic, effort The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion, by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell.

• One More Turn

  

  Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company

  Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life successful Computer Games

  by Sid Meier

  This cozy work volition involvement immoderate gamer who has uttered the immortal line, “Just 1 much crook …” arsenic they play Civilization into the wee tiny hours. We get a whistle-stop circuit of Sid Meier’s astonishing vocation successful machine games that offers immoderate insight into titles similar Civilization, SimGolf, Railroad Tycoon, and Pirates! He charts the emergence of the fledgling industry, dips into however his sanction became a marque contempt video crippled improvement being inherently collaborative, and offers immoderate proposal for aspiring crippled designers. Don’t expect idiosyncratic insights oregon revealing anecdotes; this is much astir the originative process, and it’s a amusive mode to walk the time, overmuch similar Sid’s games.

  For a look into the murkier broadside of crippled development, effort Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made, by Jason Schreier.

• Blue Egg

  

  Courtesy of Portfolio

  Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

  by Nick Bilton

  While Elon Musk's tenure astatine Twitter has taken it successful a precise antithetic direction, you mightiness beryllium funny successful speechmaking however the institution was founded, however it struggled to woody with aboriginal increasing pains, and however the 4 founders (Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass) fell retired and fought each different for control. Hatching Twitter focuses connected the hostility and backstabbing precipitated by the unit of steering a palmy startup. It’s an aggravated and melodramatic communicative that ne'er shies distant from criticism, particularly of Dorsey. Twitter has ever punched supra its weight, but acold from unraveling that mystery, this publication makes that feat consciousness adjacent much remarkable.

  For a antithetic position connected Twitter, effort Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind, by Biz Stone.

• The Influence of Insta

  

  Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

  No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

  by Sarah Frier

  This well-researched dive into the emergence of Instagram charts the app’s travel from startup to societal media behemoth. Frier interviews everyone, including the founders, and covers the archetypal intentions and improvement of Instagram, its relation successful the emergence of influencer culture, and the interaction of Facebook's acquisition. Frier besides did an absorbing Reddit AMA (ask maine anything) connected the book.

• Discriminatory Tech

  

  Courtesy of Polity

  Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

  by Ruha Benjamin

  Bias consistently creeps into AI and algorithms. Though often unintentional, this bias tin amplify racism and societal division. In this book, Ruha Benjamin, prof of African American studies astatine Princeton University, warns that the tech industry’s innovations, typically held up arsenic neutral oregon benevolent, are really perpetuating organization racism done discriminatory design. Benjamin provides a fig of persuasive examples, points retired the weaknesses of attempts to redress the imbalance, and proposes imaginable solutions.

  For much connected bias successful tech, Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech, by Sara Wachter-Boettcher, and Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O'Neil, are worthy reading.

• Amazon's Meteoric Rise

  

  Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

  Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire

  by Brad Stone

  Love him oregon hatred him, there’s nary uncertainty Jeff Bezos has driven Amazon to unthinkable levels of success. It's intolerable to abstracted the institution from the man, truthful Stone gives america a biography of Bezos and reveals his robust grip connected each task Amazon undertakes, from Alexa to the Fire Phone. Amazon’s dominance stems from the ruthless and relentless quality of Bezos, the sacrifices of his talented teams, and however efficaciously the institution has wielded tremendous standard to compression retired competitors. Stone is astatine his champion explaining Amazon’s eclectic premix of products and services, and you tin work our interrogation with the author and the concealed origins of Amazon’s Alexa for a taster.

  For an adjacent deeper dive into Amazon, work The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, besides by Stone.

• It's Samsung's World

  

  Courtesy of Virgin Books

  Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech

  by Geoffrey Cain

  Chances are you person astatine slightest 1 instrumentality successful your location made by Samsung, but however overmuch bash you cognize astir the South Korean company? Cain charts the emergence of Samsung from its humble beginnings successful 1938. We larn astir its introduction into electronics successful the 1960s, its battles with Apple, and however it claimed a ascendant spot arsenic a ubiquitous marque successful user electronics. Cain digs into the corruption astatine the bosom of Samsung’s ruling household and reveals its adjacent ties with the South Korean government. The past of this chaebol (a South Korean conglomerate tally and controlled by an idiosyncratic oregon family) comes successful a gossipy soap-opera benignant that makes for casual reading.

  More than 400 interviews with employees connection immoderate penetration into Samsung’s evolution, and Cain digs heavy into the smartphone scene, with its handling of the explosive Galaxy Note 7 revealing overmuch astir the company’s interior workings.

• AI Misogyny

  

  Courtesy of Sourcebooks

  The New Age of Sexism: How AI and Emerging Technologies Are Reinventing Misogyny

  by Laura Bates

  One of the astir striking things astir the accelerated emergence of AI is the grade to which it is driven and molded by affluent achromatic men, and truthful it reflects their values and prejudices. Laura Bates makes a beauteous convincing lawsuit here, with an abundance of profoundly disturbing examples, that AI is the caller frontier of pistillate oppression. This is horrifying stuff, possibly a small repetitive successful hammering location its point, but the bittersweet happening is that the radical who should work it ne'er will.

• Rethinking Disability

  

  Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company

  Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement

  by Ashley Shew

  Most of america volition acquisition disablement astatine immoderate point, truthful wherefore isn’t accessibility built into everything we bash by design? Disarmingly funny, razor-sharp, and profoundly insightful, this publication challenges the conception that exertion tin oregon should “fix” disabilities. Bioethicist and prof Ashley Shew makes a convincing lawsuit for listening and collaborating much to larn what disabled radical really need, pointing retired that costly technologies don’t ever amended lives, and tin adjacent further marginalize folks already struggling astatine the bottommost of our capitalist system.

  For a sensation of the book, work this excerpt, which asks wherefore we don’t person disabled astronauts exploring space.

• Elon's Rise

  

  Courtesy of Ecco

  Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  by Ashlee Vance

  The enigmatic Elon Musk is simply a fascinating, outspoken, and profoundly divisive figure. Anyone keen to larn much astir however helium started out, cashed successful with PayPal, turned Tesla around, pushed star power, and past turned his eyes skyward with SpaceX should work this biography (it stops good abbreviated of his Twitter acquisition). Vance conducted respective interviews with Musk, but the publication is astatine its champion recounting potted histories of the companies helium has helmed. Becoming a small excessively enamored of their taxable is simply a disapproval you tin level astatine galore biographers connected our list, and Vance is nary exception. Still, this is an entertaining and illuminating work that digs a small into Musk’s psyche, demanding nature, and expansive ego, without challenging the progressively ridiculous-looking thought that his lofty ambitions are genuinely astir advancing humanity. Given however things person gone successful the last fewer years, this is similar a model to the satellite earlier we veered disconnected into the darkest timeline.

  For a weightier and much up-to-date instrumentality connected the arguable billionaire, cheque retired Elon Musk, the latest biography from Walter Isaacson.

• The Dark Web

  

  Courtesy of Doubleday

  Tracers successful the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

  by Andy Greenberg

  The maturation of transgression empires successful the cryptocurrency property is documented present arsenic Andy Greenberg, WIRED’s elder writer connected hacking, cybersecurity, and surveillance, digs into integer achromatic markets. This absorbing communicative follows investigators arsenic they tackle online cause sales, bitcoin theft, and kid porn—hunting down the cybercriminals down them. Learn however criminals employed the acheronian web and cryptocurrency for nefarious ends, and however determined instrumentality enforcement (with assistance from hubris and backstage citizens) unlocked their mysterious dealings. You tin get a consciousness for Greenberg’s fascinating publication by speechmaking WIRED’s excerpt, “The Rise and Fall of AlphaBay.”