Silicon Valley has officially moved toward “MAGA.” For evidence, you need look no further than the fact that the co-founders of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most influential venture capital firms in the tech industry, have quietly announced that they will be providing a large amount of money to the Trump team. cash.
Marc Andreessen and his longtime business partner Ben Horowitz both planned to donate an unknown amount of money to the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter (Axios later confirmed). This is apparently the first time they have contributed to a presidential candidate’s campaign. The pair are just two of the latest Silicon Valley tech executives to express support for Trump, a surprising turn for those who might view the tech industry as a predominantly liberal town.
The main driver here, however, appears to be economic rather than ideological. One source told Axios that Andreessen and Horowitz are looking for leaders they believe will best serve their business interests, so donations “are driven by areas like cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence regulation, without regard to things like abortion or supreme power.” other problems”. court. “
It may initially be difficult to understand why anyone would think Trump would be the ideal candidate in this regard. After all, the billionaire has said he’s “not a fan of cryptocurrencies,” and for the most part he seems to have little interest in artificial intelligence, only occasionally claiming that it was responsible for his campaign gaffes. In recent months, however, Trump’s campaign has made a notable shift on technology issues, further aligning itself with Silicon Valley’s core interests.
Indeed, Trump recently said he would jettison Biden’s relatively mild executive order on artificial intelligence issued last year and planned to open the floodgates on artificial intelligence development, effectively freeing tech giants like Andreessen to pursue their “technological innovations.” “Stupid goal. – optimism. Trump, whose campaign recently received a small number of Dogecoin donations, has also made a U-turn on cryptocurrency and plans to speak at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville later this month. Tech Industry Does the influx of cash into the coffers have anything to do with this sudden ideological turn? I’ll leave that question to you, dear reader, to decide.
Meanwhile, Marc Andreessen’s support for Trump seems pretty straightforward. Indeed, the two of them match up well. In addition to last year’s silly, greedy proclamations about capitalism and technology, Anderson’s recent focus has been on supporting nationalist, pro-American defense startups. All of this seems to fit in with the MAGA worldview, which is generally pro-defense, pro-deregulation, and, of course, pro-rich (just look at Trump’s tax cuts). Anderson and his supporters want someone who will stay completely hands-off from their industry’s more outrageous ambitions, and for now Trump seems to fit that bill.
Even less surprising, Silicon Valley’s most famous fringe lord, billionaire Elon Musk, now appears to be pouring money into political action committees aimed at getting Trump elected. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk would begin donating “$45 million a month” to America PAC, a political action committee run by Musk’s Founded by some of the “closest friends”. The newspaper cited “people familiar with the matter” as evidence.
Musk appeared to deny the report on Tuesday, tweeting a meme in response to the report: “FAKE GNUS.” However, when a commenter on the post suggested that Musk had gone from “Obama voter to pledged to donate $180 million to elect DJT,” Musk responded: “Yeah.” Elon’s apparent red pilling is a long time coming And the noisy process is filled with many, many danger signals. One of the most prominent signs of this was Musk’s decision in 2022 to acquire Twitter, rename it X, and effectively convert it into a scaled-down version of 4chan. Since then, Musk has used the platform to spread a slew of right-wing conspiracy theories, anti-woke invective, and silly pro-capitalist ideas—an ideology that largely aligns with Trump’s supporters. Musk not only has a longstanding relationship with Trump but also has a clear disdain for Biden, officially endorsing Trump’s presidential bid on Saturday following an assassination attempt on Trump.
The PAC was founded by friends of Musk (the group is reportedly receiving funding from Musk), and it’s also backed by a number of prominent tech industry tycoons, including the creepy defense contractor Palantir Joe Lonsdale’s syndicate founders and two Facebook admirers wrote the Winklevoss twins in The Wall Street Journal. In short: Prominent members of Silicon Valley’s power elite have officially joined the ranks of the MAGA faithful. In addition to the economic interests at stake, various social panics within the Bay Area’s scarce confines may also be to blame. Considering the outrage in San Francisco over homelessness, “wokeness,” and Biden’s “unfriendly” attitude toward business interests, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is just the beginning.
