Technology

Kamala Harris’ VC supporters raise $150,000 on a Zoom call

Published

2 years ago

August 8, 2024

Kamala Harris’ VC supporters raise 0,000 on a Zoom call

It started with a “rage tweet.”

“Gonna start ‘VCs for Democracy,’” Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner at Graham & Walker, wrote on X in late July. “Who’s in?”

Turns out more than 1,300 “techies,” including 750 accredited investors, were in as part of a group that came to be known as VCs for Kamala. On Wednesday, that group raised $150,000 to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to the presidency during an hour-long Zoom call that reached up to 600 attendees.

About $100,000 of that came from 97 donors, and another $50,000 came in the form of a match from SV Angel founder and managing partner Ron Conway, who helped kick off the call. The group had already raised about $25,000 from its original push to get VCs to sign its pledge to support Harris, bringing its total fundraising to about $176,000 so far.

The donations surged quickly during the call, which also featured prominent Democratic donor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Over about half an hour, enough donations poured in to unlock the $50,000 threshold for Conway’s match.

It’s the latest in a trend of political organizing on Zoom

It’s the latest in a trend of political organizing on Zoom, including one massive call shortly after Harris joined the race that hosted tens of thousands of Black women. And later, there was the tongue-in-cheek “White Dudes for Harris.” Feinzaig noted the VC call would be a “smaller call than that one, even though there’s a high overlap between those two groups.”

The call took both a positive and somewhat defiant tone. Several VCs made side-glancing comments toward Andreessen Horowitz — whether or not by name — whose founders recently announced their support for former President Donald Trump. The group on Wednesday’s call seemed vexed that the views of a few prominent members of their sector had come to be perceived as representative of the venture capital community’s political leanings.

When Feinzaig sent her “rage tweet,” she said she’d been “feeling frustrated, like many of you, about the growing sentiment that venture capital and all of my colleagues were going MAGA, and I just felt like they didn’t speak for me, and I felt like I wanted my voice to be heard. And more critically, I felt like those loudest voices were not speaking to the hundreds of founders that I talk to on a monthly basis.”

In July, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz posted a blog called “The Little Tech Agenda,” where they identified “bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech,” which they basically think of as startups. “We support or oppose politicians regardless of party and regardless of their positions on other issues,” they wrote. Just a couple weeks later, it became clear they would support Trump in the election.

“The firm that put this framework out there would have us believe that folks who are backing Kamala Harris are anti-capitalists,” Stephen DeBerry, founder and managing partner of Bronze Investments, said on the call. “That doesn’t make any sense. We’re not opposed to profits. We’re not opposed to high growth. That’s what drives us that’s why we’re here. We’re not opposed to billionaires — there are several of them on this call. What we are opposed to is building a regulatory regime that guts our government and pulls out safeties, so that the system can’t withstand itself and it collapses. And therefore, the wealth in the system is aggregated to only a few and we become an oligopoly society like Russia.”

Mac Conwell, managing partner of RareBreed Ventures, questioned the point of “differentiating tech.”

“We’re all supposed to be working together and they’re literally trying to say, we don’t want to work with y’all, we want to work over here,” Conwell said. “And we don’t want any rules. We want growth for growth’s sake with no guardrails, regulations be damned. And as a VC, yes, regulations suck. Right? They get in the way, they make things harder. But they also make sure that this system doesn’t collapse.”

Roy Bahat, a venture capitalist who leads Bloomberg Beta, shared a startup-style pitch deck with the group in support of Harris’ campaign. One slide showed a matrix of the the competition. On the Y-axis was “Stable” and “Unstable.” On the X-axis, “Past” and “Future.” In the “Unstable” and “Past” quadrant, Bahat put an image of former President Donald Trump in a Make America Great Again hat. In the “Stable” and “Future” quadrant? A coconut emoji.

“The competition is funded by Andreessen Horowitz and some other funds, but we all know more capital isn’t necessarily the thing that makes the difference,” Bahat said. “It’s that plus a plan for execution.”

Feinzaig said she’s not a registered Democrat or Republican, and as a naturalized citizen, her “personal politics don’t actually match to American politics in any clean way.” But when she looks at an investment, she asks, “what does the world look like if this company is massively successful?”

“No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, ask yourself, what does the world look like if these candidates are massively successful?” Feinzaig said. “And I think that there’s one vision of that that is exciting. And then there’s one vision about that is that is actually quite terrifying.”

Technology

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth designates Anthropic a supply chain risk

Published

11 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth designates Anthropic a supply chain risk

This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon.

Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.

Instead, @AnthropicAI and its CEO @DarioAmodei, have chosen duplicity. Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of “effective altruism,” they have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission – a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives.

The Terms of Service of Anthropic’s defective altruism will never outweigh the safety, the readiness, or the lives of American troops on the battlefield.

Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military. That is unacceptable.

As President Trump stated on Truth Social, the Commander-in-Chief and the American people alone will determine the destiny of our armed forces, not unelected tech executives.

Anthropic’s stance is fundamentally incompatible with American principles. Their relationship with the United States Armed Forces and the Federal Government has therefore been permanently altered.

In conjunction with the President’s directive for the Federal Government to cease all use of Anthropic’s technology, I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.

America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech. This decision is final.

Technology

What Trump’s ‘ratepayer protection pledge’ means for you

Published

12 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

What Trump’s ‘ratepayer protection pledge’ means for you

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

When you open a chatbot, stream a show or back up photos to the cloud, you are tapping into a vast network of data centers. These facilities power artificial intelligence, search engines and online services we use every day. Now there is a growing debate over who should pay for the electricity those data centers consume.

During President Trump’s State of the Union address this week, he introduced a new initiative called the “ratepayer protection pledge” to shift AI-driven electricity costs away from consumers. The core idea is simple.

Tech companies that run energy-intensive AI data centers should cover the cost of the extra electricity they require rather than passing those costs on to everyday customers through higher utility rates.

It sounds simple. The hard part is what happens next.

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At the State of the Union address Feb. 24, 2026, President Trump unveiled the “ratepayer protection pledge” aimed at shielding consumers from rising electricity costs tied to AI data centers. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Why AI is driving a surge in electricity demand

AI systems require enormous computing power. That computing power requires enormous electricity. Today’s data centers can consume as much power as a small city. As AI tools expand across business, healthcare, finance and consumer apps, energy demand has risen sharply in certain regions.

Utilities have warned that the current grid in many parts of the country was not built for this level of concentrated demand. Upgrading substations, transmission lines and generation capacity costs money. Traditionally, those costs can influence rates paid by homes and small businesses. That is where the pledge comes in.

What the ratepayer protection pledge is designed to do

Under the ratepayer protection pledge, large technology companies would:

Cover the full cost of additional electricity tied to their data centers
Build their own on-site power generation to reduce strain on the public grid

Supporters say this approach separates residential energy costs from large-scale AI expansion. In other words, your household bill should not rise simply because a new AI data center opens nearby. So far, Anthropic is the clearest public backer. CyberGuy reached out to Anthropic for a comment on its role in the pledge. A company spokesperson referred us to a tweet from Anthropic Head of External Affairs Sarah Heck.

“American families shouldn’t pick up the tab for AI,” Heck wrote in a post on X. “In support of the White House ratepayer protection pledge, Anthropic has committed to covering 100% of electricity price increases that consumers face from our data centers.”

That makes Anthropic one of the first major AI companies to publicly state it will absorb consumer electricity price increases tied to its data center operations. Other major firms may be close behind. The White House reportedly plans to host Microsoft, Meta and Anthropic in early March to discuss formalizing a broader deal, though attendance and final terms have not been confirmed publicly.

Microsoft also expressed support for the initiative.

“The ratepayer protection pledge is an important step,” Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, said in a statement to CyberGuy. “We appreciate the administration’s work to ensure that data centers don’t contribute to higher electricity prices for consumers.”

Industry groups also point to companies such as Google and utilities including Duke Energy and Georgia Power as making consumer-focused commitments tied to data center growth. However, enforcement mechanisms and long-term regulatory details remain unclear.

CHINA VS SPACEX IN RACE FOR SPACE AI DATA CENTERS

The White House plans talks with Microsoft, Meta and Anthropic about shifting AI energy costs away from consumers. (Eli Hiller/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

How this could change the economics of AI

AI infrastructure is already one of the most expensive technology buildouts in history. Companies are investing billions in chips, servers and real estate. If firms must also finance dedicated power plants or pay premium rates for grid upgrades, the cost of running AI systems increases further. That could lead to:

Slower expansion in some markets
Greater investment in renewable energy and storage
More partnerships between tech firms and utilities

Energy strategy may become just as important as computing strategy. For consumers, this shift signals that electricity is now a central part of the AI conversation. AI is no longer only about software. It is also about infrastructure.

The bigger consumer tech picture

AI is becoming embedded in smartphones, search engines, office software and home devices. As adoption grows, so does the hidden infrastructure supporting it. Energy is now part of the conversation around everyday technology. Every AI-generated image, voice command or cloud backup depends on a power-hungry network of servers.

By asking companies to account more directly for their electricity use, policymakers are acknowledging a new reality. The digital world runs on very physical resources. For you, that shift could mean more transparency. It also raises new questions about sustainability, local impact and long-term costs.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HELPS FUEL NEW ENERGY SOURCES

As AI expansion strains the grid, a new proposal would require tech firms to fund their own power needs. (Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images)

What this means for you

If you are a homeowner or renter, the practical question is simple. Will this protect my electric bill? In theory, separating data center energy costs from residential rates could reduce the risk of price spikes tied to AI growth. If companies fund their own generation or grid upgrades, utilities may have less reason to spread those costs among all customers.

That said, utility pricing is complex. It depends on state regulators, long-term planning and local energy markets.

Here is what you can watch for in your area:

New data center construction announcements
Utility filings that mention large commercial load growth
Public service commission decisions on rate adjustments

Even if you rarely use AI tools, your community could feel the effects of a nearby data center. The pledge is intended to keep those large-scale power demands from showing up in your monthly bill.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

The ratepayer protection pledge highlights an important turning point. AI is no longer only about innovation and speed. It is also about energy and accountability. If tech companies truly absorb the cost of their expanding power needs, households may avoid some of the financial strain tied to rapid AI growth. If not, utility bills could become an unexpected front line in the AI era.

As AI tools become part of daily life, how much extra power are you willing to support to keep them running? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Here’s your first look at Kratos in Amazon’s God of War show

Published

24 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Here’s your first look at Kratos in Amazon’s God of War show

Amazon has slowly been teasing out casting details for its live-action adaptation of God of War, and now we have our first look at the show. It’s a single image but a notable one showing protagonist Kratos and his son Atreus. The characters are played by Ryan Hurst and Callum Vinson, respectively, and they look relatively close to their video game counterparts.

There aren’t a lot of other details about the show just yet, but this is Amazon’s official description:

The God of War series storyline follows father and son Kratos and Atreus as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.

That sounds a lot like the recent soft reboot of the franchise, which started with 2018’s God of War and continued through Ragnarök in 2022. For the Amazon series, Ronald D. Moore, best-known for his work on For All Mankind and Battlestar Galactica, will serve as showrunner. The rest of the cast includes: Mandy Patinkin (Odin), Ed Skrein (Baldur), Max Parker (Heimdall), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Thor), Teresa Palmer (Sif), Alastair Duncan (Mimir), Jeff Gulka (Sindri), and Danny Woodburn (Brok).

While production is underway on the God of War series, there’s no word on when it might start streaming.