How Silicon Valley became the epicenter of America’s political quagmire

Trump was praising venture capitalist and co-host of the All In podcast, David Sachs, who two weeks earlier had opened the doors of his San Francisco home to host a fundraiser for the Republican presidential candidate.

The event, which reportedly raised $12 million, was a stark display of Republican financial power in a notoriously liberal city, but more importantly, it exposed fissures in America’s tech industry that may have existed to some extent beneath the surface but have suddenly bubbled up to the surface, creating hostility and finger-pointing among startup founders, investors, and other tech workers.

“We have lost many friends and let our families down,” Sean Maguire of Sequoia Capital said in an email. luck “But it’s OK, I expected that. It’s sad that we live in such a time of extreme polarization,” he said after announcing he was donating $300,000 to the Trump campaign.

Since Sachs’ fundraising, a string of prominent tech experts, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and venture capital partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have pledged their allegiance to the Trump campaign, while Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings told The Information he will donate $7 million to a political action committee backing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and SV Angel’s Ron Conway are among the other prominent tech experts who have publicly endorsed Harris.

Adding fuel to the fire is that Harris is a Bay Area native and Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, is a former venture capital investor (albeit briefly) groomed by Peter Thiel.

read: The president’s support for Silicon Valley tech giants

With just months to go until the general election, candidates and their campaigns feel closer to Silicon Valley than perhaps any other election so far. Once more interested in contracts and the business of tech than getting lost in the quagmire of political partisanship, Silicon Valley now seems like just another stage in the nation’s heated political show.

“More mixed.”

The changes in Silicon Valley, particularly the vocal support from the right, are striking compared to when Trump last ran for the nation’s highest office two times.

“There may have been some who quietly supported [Trump]But at least in public,[Democrat]”It’s a much more complicated situation” this time around, Tusk said, adding that the company is “very concerned about the future of the economy.”

Eight years ago, Peter Thiel caused a stir in the tech industry when he spoke at the Republican National Convention and declared his support for Trump, at a time when Marc Andreessen, David Sachs and Sean Maguire were all backing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Of course, the environment is different than it was four years ago, and that has had an impact on Silicon Valley’s ecosystem of startups, venture firms, and public technology companies.

Under Biden, interest rates have started to rise in 2022, squeezing private markets and bringing the IPO market to a near halt. Acquisitions of startups by big tech companies, a key source of liquidity for investors and tech workers, have also slowed significantly. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has challenged a series of big-ticket deals, including scuttling Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of design startup Figma. (Microsoft managed to complete its $69 billion acquisition of game maker Activision Blizzard, but only after fighting government efforts to block it.)

“Under Trump, there was a lot of liquidity,” Tusk said. “Under Biden, there’s been none.” This isn’t necessarily Trump’s credit or Biden’s disgrace, he said, but people will look at their experiences and vote accordingly. (Tusk said he plans to donate “high six figures” to Kamala Harris’ campaign.)

Cryptographic elements

The rise of cryptocurrencies in the tech world and the sector’s shaky performance may have further exacerbated the political situation, with many in the crypto industry blaming Biden’s nomination of Gary Gensler as SEC chairman for bringing chaos to the world.

One of Gensler’s most ardent critics is Ryan Selkis, founder of crypto analytics firm Messari. In a recent profile, Selkis, who was once a Biden supporter, has blasted SEC’s Gensler with characteristic fervor, calling him a “rat,” a “snake” and a “con man.” In May, Selkis spoke at a Trump event promoting NFTs at Mar-a-Lago, and has since gone full MAGA.

But this political transformation took a dark turn after the assassination attempt on Trump, when Selkis declared the start of a “civil war” and sent out a series of incitement tweets saying that anyone who voted against Trump would “die in a motherfucker’s fire.” Selkis later posted an apology and resigned as CEO.

Political rhetoric is also causing problems on the left. Earlier this month, Reid Hoffman, a partner at Greylock and founder of LinkedIn, was forced to explain recent comments he made at a conference in which he expressed his hope that Trump would become a “true martyr.” The comments came just days before the assassination attempt on Trump, but Hoffman posted a lengthy note on X clarifying his remarks, saying he had been quoted out of context. “Obviously, I never wanted to say anything about physical harm or violence of any kind, and I categorically condemn such things,” Hoffman wrote.

As one early stage investor put it: luck They feared the women who work at the foundation would be subject to online attacks and cyber threats, and were afraid to speak publicly about their support for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Liz Hafalia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Blowback Risk

With the concentration of egos, money and power in Silicon Valley, it’s perhaps not surprising that some of its biggest names would dive into politics. Tech entrepreneurs from across the political spectrum, including Keith Rabois, Palmer Luckey, Vinod Khosla, Joe Lonsdale and Mark Cuban, have long been outspoken voices on social media.

But when the prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, known as a16z, released a video supporting Trump this month, the reaction was much more intense than typical online banter. Given the venture capital firm’s central role in the startup world and Trump’s derogatory rhetoric about women and immigrants, some startup founders and tech industry insiders felt a16z’s institutional support was overstepping the line.

Merci Grace, a former head of growth at Slack and former venture capitalist at Lightspeed, said on X that she was “totally devastated” that Andreessen and Horowitz had “gone all in” with Trump. “I felt betrayed that they were trying to sell us off for more money,” she wrote. In a comment on her post, another founder said he had “lost a lot of respect for a16z and other Silicon Valley companies.”

It remains to be seen whether Andreessen Horowitz’s support for Trump will ostracize the firm among certain founders and cost it deal opportunities.

Anu Duggal, founding partner at the Women’s Entrepreneurs Fund, which organized a two-day summit event that brought together more than 100 women entrepreneurs the day after Andreessen Horowitz posted the video, said there was little discussion of venture capitalists endorsing Trump.

“I haven’t seen any strong reactions,” Duggal said. “I think some people are barely surprised.”

Meanwhile, Duggal says she feels there is great energy in this election cycle and that having a female presidential candidate strengthens the chances of putting women’s health issues on the federal agenda.

Yet, as if to underscore the risks of getting too involved in politics, one of a16z’s main rivals, Sequoia Capital, has publicly stated that the firm will not take sides in the election (though Sequoia partners such as Maguire, Trump supporter Doug Leone, and longtime Democratic supporter Michael Moritz are free to do as they please).

The partisan divide in the US is unhealthy, Sequoia President Rolof Botha said onstage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference this month. “At Sequoia as a partnership, we don’t take a political viewpoint.”