Musk Turbocharges Silicon Valley Support for Trump

Musk Turbocharges Silicon Valley Support for Trump

Selection of JD Vance as running mate likely to fuel momentum from tech leaders frustrated with Biden administration

By Dana Mattioli, Preetika Rana and Emily Glazer, WSJ

July 16, 2024 7:31 pm ET

Big names in tech are turning Donald Trump’s way, a shift likely to be accelerated by excitement over Elon Musk’s nine-figure commitment and former venture capitalist JD Vance joining the ticket.

Those two developments have punctuated a brewing cultural change in traditionally liberal Silicon Valley, as investors and executives announce their support for Trump over issues including the Biden administration’s stance on artificial-intelligence regulation and crackdowns on acquisitions by big tech. Some say following Biden’s poor debate performance and Trump’s response to this weekend’s assassination attempt, there is more momentum and permission to support the Republican.

The rising support among tech executives is helping fuel the Trump campaign efforts with funds from deep-pocketed donors. Musk has told people he will donate around $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super political-action committee called America PAC, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

WSJ’s Molly Ball breaks down how Vance got the nomination and what it means for the future of the GOP. Photo: Andrew Kelly/Reuters PHOTO: ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS

America PAC has also drawn support from associates of the billionaire including tech investor Joe Lonsdale; Antonio Gracias, a former Tesla director and current SpaceX board member; investor Kenneth Howery; and Sequoia Capital partners Shaun Maguire and Doug Leone, the latter of whom publicly denounced Trump after Jan. 6.

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the founders of the powerhouse VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, told staff Monday they intended to contribute personal money to support pro-Trump political organizations, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. They said they made the decision after concluding that Trump would do more than Biden to support startups.

The Information previously reported on their plans.

A cultural change

A number of tech executives and employees have leaned more to the political right in recent years, often in response to Biden administration policies. Some were motivated by issues personally important to them like support for Israel and opposition to diversity initiatives. But many have been upset about how the Biden administration has gone after big tech and regulated cryptocurrency.

“In the end, people vote their pocketbooks,” said Boris Feldman, a longtime lawyer to tech companies and a Republican. “For the tech executives, the notion that every acquisition they hope to do over the next few years is going to get attacked so that even if they win it’ll get tied up for years—it finally draws them in.”

Musk and other pro-Trump tech figures have attributed their stances in part to positions embraced by Democrats. On Tuesday, Musk said he’s moving the headquarters of two of his companies, X and SpaceX, to Texas because of a new law in their current home state of California that blocks schools from mandating that teachers notify families if students change their gender identity.

The tech-world shift is far from universal. Silicon Valley support for Biden has been strong in the current campaign, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Federal Election Commission data. Big donors include former Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt and tech investors Laurene Powell Jobs, John Doerr and Ron Conway. LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman alone has donated more than $8 million to support Biden’s re-election effort.

Some of Trump’s tech supporters backed Democrats in the past.

Andreessen endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, saying at the time that he opposed Trump’s stances on immigration. He didn’t publicly endorse a presidential candidate in 2020.

He and Horowitz wrote a blog post earlier this month saying their political efforts were focused on protecting startups, which they described as “Little Tech,” from government regulation that they argued cements the position of big tech incumbents.

The PayPal Mafia

A public turn toward Trump in the tech industry has been a recent goal of a group of executives and investors known as the “PayPal Mafia,” who helped start the payments company in the early 2000s. They include Musk, Howery and venture investor David Sacks, who have been soliciting donations for Trump both publicly and privately, according to people familiar with the conversations.

The PayPal Mafia also includes venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who spoke at the 2016 Republican convention, but has said he isn’t planning political donations to the GOP candidate this cycle.

Vance is well known to the PayPal Mafia. The vice-presidential candidate worked for Thiel in Silicon Valley before starting his own VC firm called Narya Capital that invests in middle America. Besides Thiel, other backers of Narya included Alphabet’s Schmidt and Andreessen.

In 2022, Thiel backed Vance’s Senate run in Ohio.

$12 million fundraiser

Before joining the presidential ticket, Vance helped connect Trump to Silicon Valley money. At a June fundraiser at the San Francisco home of Sacks—a friend of the Ohio senator who spoke at this week’s Republican National Convention—Vance introduced Trump to the crowd.

Speaking without a script, Vance talked about advancing AI, loosening cryptocurrency regulations, and other issues on the minds of attendees. “He had a great read of the room given his background,” said Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney who has represented Trump and is the Republican national committeewoman for California.

Around 80 people attended the event, where they snacked on crab and donated a total of $12 million.

Some attendees voted for Hillary Clinton or President Biden in prior elections, including Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist who co-hosted the event.

“If you look at the Biden administration, he appointed a bunch of people that are literally activists at the SEC, at the FDA, at the FCC, and they have been enacting policies that are overreach and not supportive of innovation,” said Pishevar. “That’s been a very visceral thing for me and my community.”

Berber Jin contributed to this article.