Business
Why some Silicon Valley investors are backing the Trump-Vance campaign
For many years, Republicans and ardent supporters of former President Trump haven’t been super popular in Silicon Valley circles.
But the sentiment has shifted in recent weeks as conservative voices in San Francisco’s tech sector have grown increasingly strident in their support of a Trump-Vance ticket.
Trump attended a fundraiser last month at venture capitalist David Sacks’ Pacific Heights mansion that raised $12 million and was the former president’s first visit to San Francisco in at least a decade. Sacks said he hoped the event would “break the ice” on discussions around Trump and could create a “preference cascade, where all of a sudden it becomes acceptable to acknowledge the truth.”
And on Tuesday, Sacks posted a list of 17 prominent names in the tech industry — including Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital partner Doug Leone and Ben Horowitz, general partner of renowned venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — with a photo of Trump giving a thumbs-up on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “Come on in, the water’s warm,” Sacks wrote.
Many of those tech investors celebrated the appointment of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance — a venture capitalist who built his career in Silicon Valley — as Trump’s vice presidential nominee out of a shared belief that he would help remove regulations they believe could stifle innovation in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.
“The future of our business, the future of new technology and the future of America is literally at stake,” Horowitz said Tuesday on “The Ben & Marc Show” podcast. “For little tech, we think Donald Trump is actually the right choice, and sorry, Mom, I know you’re gonna be mad at me for this, but we had to do it.”
But Gov. Gavin Newsom said the shift of Silicon Valley toward the right in this presidential election has been “wildly overstated.”
“I don’t think it’s a trend at all. Those pockets have always been there,” Newsom said in an interview Tuesday while touring a Northern California prison. “There’s been that libertarian energy in the valley for decades and decades. And frankly, I don’t see significant deviation.”
Newsom, who built close ties with the tech industry while mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, said Silicon Valley donors supporting Trump are “looking at their own economic interests and are very transactional in their business practices.”
Nonethless, while Silicon Valley has long been home to prominent conservatives such as Peter Thiel and Sacks, such enthusiastic embrace for a Trump-Vance administration in San Francisco’s tech community is striking.
The Bay Area is well known nationally for its progressive politics and as the birthplace of prominent Democrats such as the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris. And Bay Area social media companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) have come under fire from some Republican legislators who accuse them of censoring conservative ideas and Trump.
The region is overwhelmingly represented by Democrats in the statehouse and the San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley and Oakland mayors’ offices. And while big names in Silicon Valley have more recently donated large sums to the Republican Party and Trump’s election campaign, the Bay Area is more typically the favored cash cow of Democrats.
In 2020, 72.6% of Santa Clara County voters backed Joe Biden, and just 25.2% supported Trump.
Biden made a fundraising stop at billionaire environmentalist and former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer’s house in September. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, is another Democratic mega-donor who has hosted fundraisers for Biden, as has venture capitalist and Tesla investor Steve Westly.
In May, investor Vinod Khosla, who hosted a Biden Bay Area fundraiser that month, said he’s a huge supporter of the president.
“We have to absolutely at any cost make sure that donkey’s rump Trump doesn’t get elected and destroy democracy,” Khosla said at a Bloomberg event.
But others in the Silicon Valley have soured on Biden for a variety of reasons, including the government suing tech giants like Apple and Google over alleged monopolistic practices.
Some tech investors also believe the continuation of the Biden administration would restrict innovation in emerging technologies, hindering the nation’s ability to compete in the global tech race — and their own financial interests.
They point to what they call unnecessary investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into crypto startups and the challenges crypto businesses face in getting financing from banks.
“This is a brutal assault to a nascent industry that has never happened before,” Marc Andreessen said on “The Ben & Marc Show” podcast, acknowledging that his firm is one of the largest cryptocurrency investors in the world.
By contrast, the Trump campaign’s platform calls for the end of the “unAmerican Crypto crackdown” and pledges to “defend the right to mine Bitcoin, and ensure every American has the right to self-custody of their Digital Assets, and transact free from Government Surveillance and Control.”
If elected, Trump also said he would repeal Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence “that hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology. In its place, Republicans support AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing,” according to the Republican platform.
Another beef among tech investors: Biden’s capital gains tax proposal, which would tax the value of an individuals’ assets worth $100 million or more. Critics say that would affect startup founders, whose company valuations fluctuate and whose compensation is based on stock options.
“This makes startups completely implausible,” Andreessen said. “Venture capital just ends.”
A representative for the Biden administration did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump’s appointment of Vance — who previously worked with Thiel at Mithril Capital — is expected to give his campaign a further boost among tech backers.
Thiel served on Trump’s transition team after he won the presidency in 2016 and backed Vance when he ran for office, pouring $10 million into Vance’s coffers during his 2022 race for Senate in Ohio, federal records show.
Sacks contributed $1 million to a PAC backing Vance and co-hosted a fundraiser in Miami for Vance and eight other Republican Senate candidates. Vance, who lived briefly in San Francisco, has called Sacks “one of his closest confidants” in politics.
“He’s perceived as one of them,” said Olaf Groth, chief executive of the think tank Cambrian Futures and a professional member of the faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. “The people that are endorsing him are a very rare elite at the very top of the food chain of entrepreneurship and venture capital of Silicon Valley.”
Silicon Valley leaders are beginning to build the war chest of a new political action committee, America PAC, that is backing Trump’s reelection bid. America PAC reported spending $7.7 million on canvassing, text messages and get-out-the-vote operations over the last three months.
The group’s website and social media accounts are focused on voter registration and turnout, featuring a 15-second clip of Trump saying that “absentee voting, early voting and election-day voting are all good options.”
Multiple outlets reported this week that Musk has pledged to give $45 million per month to the group through November. Other Silicon Valley donors to the group include cryptocurrency executives Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss; Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies; and Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, federal filings show.
Republican Party backers say more Bay Area businesses are getting frustrated at how local government is handling crime and other issues in San Francisco.
“These companies are being crippled by Democrat policies,” said Harmeet Dhillon, California’s Republican national committeewoman and a San Francisco-based attorney who acts as an official legal surrogate for the Trump campaign. “They have to make decisions that are the best for them, so that’s the calculus I’ve been seeing.”
Some Trump supporters, such as Andreessen, had previously supported other Democratic presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton. Within Biden’s own Democratic Party there are schisms over whether he should be the next president, given concerns about his age.
“They’re voting with their pocketbooks, but by signaling that they’re not in lockstep with Democrat policies and Democrat disarray of our country, they’re signaling to their tens and hundreds of thousands of workers that it’s OK to be Republican,” Dhillon said.
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
Politicians in Washington and the reporters who cover them have an often adversarial relationship.
But on the last Saturday in April, they gather for an irreverent celebration of press freedom and the First Amendment at the Washington Hilton Hotel: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Hosted by the association, an organization that helps ensure access for media outlets covering the presidency, the dinner attracts Hollywood stars; politicians from both parties; and representatives of more than 100 networks, newspapers, magazines and wire services.
While The Times will have two reporters in the ballroom covering the event, the company no longer buys seats at the party, said Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief. The decision goes back almost two decades; the last dinner The Times attended as an organization was in 2007.
“We made a judgment back then that the event had become too celebrity-focused and was undercutting our need to demonstrate to readers that we always seek to maintain a proper distance from the people we cover, many of whom attend as guests,” he said.
It’s a decision, he added, that “we have stuck by through both Republican and Democratic administrations, although we support the work of the White House Correspondents’ Association.”
Susan Wessling, The Times’s Standards editor, said the policy is a product of the organization’s desire to maintain editorial independence.
“We don’t want to leave readers with any questions about our independence and credibility by seeming to be overly friendly with people whose words and actions we need to report on,” she said.
The celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman is headlining the evening, in lieu of the usual comedy set by the likes of Stephen Colbert and Hasan Minhaj, but all eyes will be on President Trump, who will make his first appearance at the dinner as president.
Mr. Trump has boycotted the event since 2011, when he was the butt of punchlines delivered by President Barack Obama and the talk show host Seth Meyers mocking his hair, his reality TV show and his preoccupation with the “birther” movement.
Last month, though, Mr. Trump, who has a contentious relationship with the media, announced his intention to attend this year’s dinner, where he will speak to a room full of the same reporters he often derides as “enemies of the people.”
Times reporters will be there to document the highs, the lows and the reactions in the room. A reporter for the Styles desk has also been assigned to cover the robust roster of after-parties around Washington.
Some off-duty reporters from The Times will also be present at this late-night circuit, though everyone remains cognizant of their roles, said Patrick Healy, The Times’s assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust.
“If they’re reporting, there’s a notebook or recorder out as usual,” he said. “If they’re not, they’re pros who know they’re always identifiable as Times journalists.”
For most of The Times’s reporters and editors, though, the evening will be experienced from home.
“The rest of us will be able to follow the coverage,” Mr. Stevenson said, “without having to don our tuxes or gowns.”
A former female staffer who worked for Beast Industries, the media venture behind the popular YouTube channel MrBeast, is suing the company, alleging she was sexually harassed and fired shortly after she returned from maternity leave.
The employee, Lorrayne Mavromatis, a Brazilian-born social media professional, alleges in a lawsuit she was subjected to sexual harassment by the company’s management and demoted after she complained about her treatment. She said she was urged to join a conference call while in labor and expected to work during her maternity leave in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act, according to the federal complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
“This clout-chasing complaint is built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements, and we have the receipts to prove it. There is extensive evidence — including Slack and WhatsApp messages, company documents, and witness testimony — that unequivocally refutes her claims. We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us,” Gaude Paez, a Beast Industries spokesperson, said in a statement.
Jimmy Donaldson, 27, began MrBeast as a teen gaming channel that soon exploded into a media company worth an estimated $5 billion, with 500 employees and 450 million subscribers who watch its games, stunts and giveaways.
Mavromatis, who was hired in 2022 as its head of Instagram, described a pervasive climate of discrimination and harassment, according to the lawsuit.
In her complaint, she alleges the company’s former CEO James Warren made her meet him at his home for one-on-one meetings while he commented on her looks and dismissed her complaints about a male client’s unwanted advances, telling her “she should be honored that the client was hitting on her.”
When Mavromatis asked Warren why MrBeast, Donaldson, would not work with her, she was told that “she is a beautiful woman and her appearance had a certain sexual effect on Jimmy,” and, “Let’s just say that when you’re around and he goes to the restroom, he’s not actually using the restroom.”
Paez refuted the claim.
“That’s ridiculous. This is an allegation fabricated for the sole purpose of sparking headlines,” Paez said.
Mavromatis said she endured a slate of other indignities such as being told by Donaldson that she “would only participate in her video shoot if she brought him a beer.”
“In this male-centric workplace, Plaintiff, one of the few women in a high-level role, was excluded from otherwise all-male meetings, demeaned in front of colleagues, harassed, and suffered from males be given preferential treatment in employment decisions,” states the complaint.
When Mavromatis raised a question during a staff meeting with her team, she said a male colleague told her to “shut up” or “stop talking.”
At MrBeast headquarters in Greenville, N.C., she said male executives mocked female contestants participating in BeastGames, “who complained they did not have access to feminine hygiene products and clean underwear while participating in the show.”
In November 2023, Mavromatis formally complained about “the sexually inappropriate encounters and harassment, and demeaning and hostile work environment she and other female employees had been living and experiencing working at MrBeast,” to the company’s then head of human resources, Sue Parisher, who is also Donaldson’s mother, according to the suit.
In her complaint, Mavromatis said Beast Industries did not have a method or process for employees to report such issues either anonymously or to a third party, rather employees were expected to follow the company’s handbook, “How to Succeed In MrBeast Production.”
In it, employees were instructed that, “It’s okay for the boys to be childish,” “if talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them” and “No does not mean no,” according to the complaint.
Mavromatis alleges that she was demoted and then fired.
Paez said that Mavromatis’s role was eliminated as part of a reorganization of an underperforming group within Beast Industries and that she was made aware of this.
Lululemon, the yoga pants and athletic clothing company, has hired a former executive from a rival, Nike, as its new chief executive.
Heidi O’Neill, who spent more than 25 years at Nike, will take the reins and join Lululemon’s board of directors on Sept. 8, the company announced on Wednesday.
The leadership change is happening during a tumultuous time for Lululemon, which had grown to $11 billion in revenue by persuading shoppers to ditch their jeans and slacks for stretchy leggings. But lately, sales have declined in North America amid intense competition and shifting fashion trends, with consumers favoring looser styles rather than the form-fitting silhouettes for which Lululemon is best known.
“As I step into the C.E.O. role in September, my job will be to build on that foundation — to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world,” Ms. O’Neill, 61, said in a statement.
Lululemon, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has also been entangled in a corporate power struggle over the company’s future. Its billionaire founder, Chip Wilson, has feuded with the board, nominated independent directors and criticized executives.
Lululemon’s previous chief executive, Calvin McDonald, stepped down at the end of January as pressure mounted from Mr. Wilson and some investors. One activist investor, Elliott Investment Management, had pushed its own chief executive candidate, who was not selected.
The interim co-chiefs, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini, will lead the company until Ms. O’Neill’s arrival, when they are expected to return to other senior roles. The pair had outlined a plan to revive sales at Lululemon, promising to invest in stores, save more money and speed up product development.
“We start the year with a real plan, with real strategies,” Mr. Maestrini said in an interview this year. “We make sure decisions are made fast.”
Lululemon said last month that it would add Chip Bergh, the former chief executive of Levi Strauss, to its board to replace David Mussafer, the chairman of the private equity firm Advent International, whom Mr. Wilson had sought to remove.
Ms. O’Neill climbed the organizational chart at Nike for decades, working across divisions including consumer sports, product innovation and brand marketing, and was most recently its president of consumer, product and brand. She left Nike last year amid a shake-up of senior management that led to the elimination of her role.
Analysts said Ms. O’Neill would be expected to find ways to energize Lululemon’s business and reset the company’s culture in order to improve performance.
“O’Neill is her own person who will come with an agenda of change,” said Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company. “The task ahead is a significant one, but it can be undertaken from a position of relative stability.”
-
Minneapolis, MN54 seconds agoMinneapolis Man Gets 8.5 Years For Trying To Join ISIS In Somalia
-
Indianapolis, IN7 minutes agoCost of living tops Indiana voters’ minds as primary nears
-
Pittsburg, PA13 minutes agoCalifornia High School Football: Pittsburg releases schedule
-
Augusta, GA19 minutes agoValette Earns Elite 18 Award; Augusta Men’s Tennis Lands Three on Peach Belt All-Conference Teams – Augusta University
-
Washington, D.C25 minutes agoHow to find towed car in DC; What to do if the city tows my car
-
Cleveland, OH31 minutes agoCleveland News and Notes – Guardians Drop Series Against Astros
-
Austin, TX37 minutes ago
Athletes Race at USA Triathlon Cross National Championships in Austin, Texas
-
Alabama43 minutes agoAlabama boy’s secret Facebook post asking for cancer drug grabs national attention
