Enterprise capital buyers Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz plan to donate a big quantity to Donald Trump’s marketing campaign for president, in response to an individual acquainted with their plans, making the well-known VC duo the most recent tech buyers to throw their assist to the Republican.
The leaders of the eponymous Silicon Valley agency Andreessen Horowitz are nonetheless evaluating which Trump-affiliated group or organizations to again and can make the choice shortly, stated the individual, who requested to stay nameless discussing personal info. The donations can be private contributions from the 2 males, not from the agency itself. And so they gained’t be as substantial because the $45 million a month billionaire Elon Musk has stated he’ll contribute to Trump’s election. Different companions on the agency are additionally contemplating making their very own contributions, the individual stated.
Andreessen Horowitz, one of many best-known corporations in tech, has turn into extra enmeshed in politics in latest months. The agency has been stepping up its Washington lobbying footprint, and final yr Horowitz wrote that its companions would search to again candidates who assist an “optimistic, technology-enabled future” and oppose “misguided” tech rules. In June, Andreessen spoke at a Trump fundraiser.
In a video posted Tuesday, Andreessen and Horowitz held a prolonged dialogue in regards to the upcoming election, and which candidate could be higher for the startup world — a contingent the agency has nicknamed “little tech.” The pair additionally acknowledged that a lot of the business is left-leaning, and each males stated they’d been long-time Democrats earlier than switching their allegiance. “I’m going to have a lot of friends who are probably pissed off at me for saying anything nice about President Trump,” Horowitz stated. “So here we are, and for little tech, we think Donald Trump is actually the right choice.”
The Data earlier reported some particulars of the donations.
Andreessen and Horowitz, who made fortunes by serving to develop tech startups into behemoths, wrote a weblog publish earlier this month lamenting that the American authorities is now “far more hostile to new startups than it used to be.” Andreessen has additionally sounded the alarm in regards to the affect of rules on cryptocurrency and synthetic intelligence — areas the place some count on Trump to be extra pleasant to the business.
The buyers be part of an extended line of distinguished figures in tech and finance who are actually backing Trump. The candidate has gained endorsements from Musk, Sequoia Capital investor Shaun Maguire and VC David Sacks, who hosted a San Francisco fundraiser for Trump that introduced in $12 million.
Crypto billionaires Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss made the utmost $844,600 to Trump’s reelection committees, and in addition mixed to present $500,000 to the identical tremendous PAC Musk helps. Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Elliott Funding Administration founder Paul Singer each donated to Trump.
The flood of money has allowed Trump, whose warfare chest trailed Biden’s by practically $100 million on the finish of March, to overhaul his rival. Trump entered July with $285 million money available, topping Biden’s $240 million, in response to Federal Election Fee filings.
Andreessen and Horowitz may pad that benefit. They rank among the many 10 greatest donors within the 2024 election cycle, in response to OpenSecrets, and have every donated, both individually or via their enterprise capital agency, greater than $24 million.
The most important recipient of their largesse is Fairshake, a nonpartisan tremendous PAC that helps or opposes candidates based mostly on their positions on the cryptocurrency business. Andreessen Horowitz donated $44 million to Fairshake beneath the title AH Capital Administration, FEC information present. Their contributions are attributed to its founders, Andreessen and Horowitz, who had been every the supply of $22 million.
