Tech leaders back Trump, plan to donate to campaign

Billionaires Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, co-founders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, are both planning to make donations to Trump's re-election efforts, according to Axios. This marks a significant departure from their previous stance, as neither Andreessen nor Horowitz have donated to a political campaign.

Last year, their firm announced that its partners would support candidates they believe are “advancing technology.” Sources indicated that both Andreessen and Horowitz view Trump as a preferable candidate for addressing cryptocurrency and AI regulation issues. Andreessen also explained that his "final straw" for switching support to Trump was President Biden's proposal to tax unrealized capital gains.

"This makes startups completely implausible, because why on Earth is anybody going to go do this instead of going to work for Google and getting paid a lot of money every year in cash?" Andreessen explained.

Andreessen currently serves on the board of Facebook, while Horowitz has investments in OpenAI. The two’s firm has not made any formal endorsements going into the 2024 election, but Andreessen has been routinely critical of Silicon Valley’s liberal bias, despite supporting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Additionally, tech investor David Sacks recently spoke at the Republican National Convention’s opening night and co-hosted a Trump fundraiser in San Francisco.

The support by prominent tech leaders comes on the heels of Elon Musk's announcement that he plans to contribute approximately $45 million a month to America PAC, a pro-Trump political action committee. The Tesla CEO officially announced his endorsement of Trump immediately following the assassination attempt that occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania.