For Silicon Valley big shots, Mark Zuckerberg testifying at Meta’s ongoing trial before the Federal Trade Commission has hijacked their attention for the last week.

Zuckerberg — whose company owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — spoke at trial to deny charges that his business has illegally monopolized social media.

The commission is aiming to break up Meta and have its three main products managed independently of each other, following through on a suit filed in December 2020 during Donald Trump’s first term as president. After the suit languished under President Joe Biden, the new Trump administration has picked it back up and brought it front and center.

“There are people in the Trump orbit who want to extract pain from Zuckerberg,” a White House insider acknowledged to The Post, although they added: “But I don’t know that the case is going to go where they want it to go.”

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Tech titans are gripped because the trial represents a bellwether of their own possible fates and a potential reckoning on Big Tech.

“This is a UFC-like battle between the FTC and Meta,” Dan Ives, global head of tech research at Wedbush Securities, told The Post about mixed martial arts-loving Zuckerberg’s showdown with an entity of the federal government.

“This has been years in the making. Pressure in the Beltway has continued to increase against Big Tech. It’s Meta today. But tomorrow it could be Amazon, Apple and others. So this is a case that everyone in tech and on Wall Street is observing.”

For Google, the tides already appear to be changing. A federal judge made a landmark ruling on April 17 deciding for the first time that the company has a monopoly in two advertising markets, which is likely to cause them disruption moving forward.

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But if one of the tech bros has to be in the hot seat to defend the industry, Zuckerberg may now be the right man for the job.

“He’s not going to take this sitting down,” Ives added. “You’re talking about his baby, which he built. And Zuckerberg has been through a lot already.”

Indeed, the Meta leader has undergone a complete image overhaul. He’s no longer the gray-faced, over-prepped nerd of a 2018 congressional hearing who kept responding to questions by saying, “My team will get back to you.”

Instead he’s undergone a complete image and attitude update, designing his own T-shirts with ancient Greek phrases, leading a huge pop performance for his wife’s 40th birthday and giving succinct, practiced answers in court last week.

“This is not the Zuckerberg of six or seven years ago, the guy who looks nervous when being questioned in front of Congress,” Ives said.

Some Trump insiders are not buying former Democratic donor Zuckerberg’s apparent 180, which has seen him suddenly set himself up by the MAGA camp.

“There’s a lot more ass-kissing that needs to be done. He just needs to prove himself. It’s a good start, but he can’t just snap his fingers and make the past not happen,” one senior Trump administration official told Rolling Stone of the CEO.

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However, politicians should be wary of underestimating Zuck. He has always been ruthless in business – fiercely maintaining control of Facebook, heading off competitors and finding a way to get his products onto seemingly every device. “I think the Jiu-Jitsu training has helped him,” Ives added.

Zuckerberg has also been working a more friendly approach to curry favor, for example he, like many others, donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund in January.

Like most other Silicon Valley bigs, Zuckerberg also attended the inauguration, pictured standing just behind Trump alongside Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Perhaps taking things a step further, he put Trump pal Dana White – the boss of UFC – on the board of Meta.

Prior to that, in August Zuckerberg acknowledged to Republican lawmakers that Facebook had played down content that had been critical of Joe Biden’s wayward son Hunter and had made satirical material related to the pandemic in 2021 more difficult to find. He also admitted he was wrong to have done those things.

Unmoved, in September, Trump put out the coffee table book “Save America” in which he pledged Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to “meddle” in the election of 2024. It appears that warning produced satisfactory results for the now-President.

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In January Zuckerberg also ended the use of fact checkers on his platforms, after a barrage of complaints from conservatives that they were biased and unfairly censoring them.

But by coming clean about past failures and sucking up to the administration, will that help Zuckerberg’s cause to keep his company intact?

Gigi Sohn, a former advisor to the FCC under the Obama administration noted to the New York Times, “They give [Trump] everything and he promises nothing.”

Seemingly undaunted, Zuckerberg has now gone so far as to purchase a home in Washington DC.

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And what a home it is. Locked in with $23 million in cash, the 15,400-square-foot house –located just a 12 minute drive from the White House — features a basketball court and a so-called “pool complex.” Zuck’s digs is the third most expensive home purchase in Washington DC history.

He joins other Silicon Valley transplants – including Bezos, Peter Thiel and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in having a place in the Capitol.

In the case of Zuckerberg, Jennifer Knoll, a DC area agent with Compass Real Estate, told The Post, “It shows President Trump that you’re here, that you’re able to come when he wants you to come, when he wants to speak to you or hear from you. You are at his disposal, which is a big deal to him.”

The timing of Zuckerberg’s move East does not surprise Knoll. After all, the Facebook baron is not DC’s sole Johnny-come-lately. “The only person who’s had a place here for a while is Jeff Bezos,” she said of the former Amazon boss who notably owns the Washington Post.

“Peter Thiel moved in six months ago. Everyone else came after the election. They’re buying [for] access.”

That said, it’s unclear whether or not proximity and availability will be enough for Zuckerberg.

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Mike Davis, founder of the conservative advocacy group Article III Project, harbors doubts.

He claims to have met with Trump two weeks prior to the hearings and told The Post, “Mark Zuckerberg thought President Trump was going to force a settlement with the FTC. He miscalculated.”

Asked if he discussed this with Trump, Davis replied, “I have.”

A spokesperson for Meta told The Post: “It’s an important time for the future of American innovation. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Administration to advance American technology leadership and push back against overly restrictive European regulations.”

Even as he plants himself in DC and into the right circles, some insiders remain wary.

“Everything Zuckerberg does is calculated,” Rachel Bovard, senior director of policy at the Conservative Partner Institute, told The Post. Ticking off his various entreaties, she added, “This is how they do business: Gladhanding, lobbying and trying to influence the process in Washington. Even the purchase of Zuckerberg’s home and its proximity to the White House are of note.”

Davis agrees and sounds unsure if Zuck’s generosity will be enough: “I don’t think a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration is going to make up [Zuckerberg’s previous support of Democrats.] Trump’s not stupid.”

Nevertheless, there is a sense that dropping big-bucks has helped. “If Zuck hadn’t done what he has done over the last six months, they would be in worse shape,” the White House insider said of Meta’s possibility of holding onto all three assets.

Although there’s no way to predict the outcome of the trial, they added: “I think that could bring him to a stalemate, not a win.”