HOW THE ELECTION BROKE SILICON VALLEY

THE RICH AND FAMOUS are just like us, celebrity gossip magazines love to tell you. When it comes to Silicon Valley’s billionaires, though, they are acting a lot more like your politics-obsessed uncle.

- ALEXEI ORESKOVIC, Jenn Brice

With a blizzard of tweets, blog posts, public comments, and podcasts, the tech industry’s most powerful business leaders are delivering a running commentary on this year’s presidential campaign cycle that’s hard to tune out. Bolstered by hubris and net worth, these billionaires have loudly aligned themselves with their preferred candidate, taken potshots at the opposition, and flogged their personal policy prescriptions—often in feisty social media spats with one another.

One day it’s Vinod Khosla, the Sun Microsystems cofounder and venture capitalist, sparring with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about Trump’s views on NATO and climate change. The next, it’s LinkedIn cofounder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman publishing a lengthy post picking apart the rationale espoused by his fellow member of the “PayPal mafia,” venture investor David Sacks, for supporting Trump. Even Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg got his toes wet, cheering Trump’s “badass” fist pump after the former president survived an assassination attempt.

Enormous political contributions from Silicon Valley have meant that Washington is increasingly beholden to these outspoken techies: Since 2022, Hoffman has shelled out $42.8 million to Democratic PACs and state and federal candidates; Keith Rabois, another VC, has put $9.3 million to work for Republican PACS and candidates; and Peter Thiel of Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund gave $15 million to Republican PACs in Ohio and Arizona (and though he says he's sitting out the 2024 election, he was a major influence in the ascension of his protégé JD Vance to be Trump's running mate). In June, Donald Trump attended a fundraiser at Sacks' San Francisco home. And a "VCs for Kamala" Zoom fundraiser in August drew 600 people.