Following his “full endorsement” of former President Donald Trump over the weekend, entrepreneur Elon Musk has announced that he will give a staggering $45 million per month to a pro-Trump super PAC between now and the election – a major development that will undoubtedly help shape the outcome of the race.
Musk’s dollars will reportedly go toward voter outreach and registration efforts, two areas where Republicans have traditionally lagged behind Democrats. The PAC will also encourage Republicans to vote early and by mail, particularly in swing states.
Musk, who has acknowledged that he has previously voted Democrat, has become a top critic of liberal policies during President Joe Biden’s tenure, particularly on immigration and contentious social issues like transgender procedures for minors.
But Musk is hardly the only member of Silicon Valley royalty to change their tune this election cycle and openly throw their weight behind Trump. In another indication of the tech industry’s growing warmth toward the former president, a fundraiser in San Francisco earlier this summer attended by top tech figures raised some $12 million. Tickets for the gathering – where VIP slots cost $500,000 per couple – were sold out.
The event was hosted by David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, two venture capitalists who have been particularly outspoken in their support for Trump. Sacks was one of the leading forces behind PayPal, and latter founded Yammer, a social networking platform that was purchased by Microsoft. He now leads a successful venture capital firm. Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook and later also entered the venture capital space.
Sacks, who has in the past been critical of Trump, fully endorsed him in a lengthy post on X earlier this year, laying out four key reasons why he believes Trump is the best choice this November. “The voters have experienced four years of President Trump and four years of President Biden,” Sacks wrote. “In tech, we call this an A/B test. With respect to economic policy, foreign policy, border policy, and legal fairness, Trump performed better. He is the President who deserves a second term.”
Following the assassination attempt against Trump over the weekend, Sacks again reiterated his support for the former president, posting “I KNOW A HERO WHEN I SEE ONE” in response to a Washington Post article accusing him and Musk of using “their online megaphones” to spread false “narratives” and “make unsubstantiated allegations about the shooting.”
“I’m not sure what ‘narratives’ they’re referring to, but I know what I saw, and I know what the crowd in Butler witnessed live,” Sacks wrote. “Trump stood defiant in the face of an assassin’s bullet. There is no way to fake courage like that.”
Musk, who has become one of the most prominent critics of Democrat policies and particularly Joe Biden’s tenure in recent months, also issued his own full endorsement of Trump following the shooting on Saturday. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk posted on X, along with a video of Trump defiantly pumping his fist in the air.
According to a recent New York Post report, Sacks, Palihapitiya, and Musk are just part of a “growing segment of Silicon Valley [that] is all in on Donald Trump.”
“It’s very different than 2016 when you were ostracized… in 2016 you would have had backlash from portfolio companies or founders [if you endorsed Trump],” one anonymous source told the Post. “The stigma is going away.”
Some other notable Silicon Valley names that have publicly backed Trump are Shaun Maguire, a partner at leading venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Doug Leone, a former Sequoia executive, and Ryan Selkis, founder of cryptocurrency data firm Messari.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the billionaire founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, have also announced twin million-dollar donations in Bitcoin to the Trump campaign.
The emerging political battle lines over crypto appear to be one reason why many in Silicon Valley are inching toward Trump. While Democrats, most notably Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have moved to assert more aggressive government control over crypto, Trump has pledged a more hands off approach to help the industry grow.
Additionally, as noted by the New York Times, “Mr. Biden’s pick for head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, has been hostile to cryptocurrency companies.” The nascent crypto market has been hobbled by Gensler, who has given, at best, inconsistent policy proposals on how the United States will or will not regulate crypto markets.
Biden’s other unpopular policy stances also appear to be playing a role in driving Silicon Valley rightward. While wealthy tech executives have long opposed Democrat tax policies, the Post reports that Biden’s failure on other issues such as Israel and the open border are tipping the scales toward Trump.
Energy policy could be another reason for this development. The advent of artificial intelligence, digital markets, blockchain technologies, and other novel innovations all require enormous amounts of energy. According to Goldman Sachs, one ChatGPT question requires ten times as much energy as one Google search. The financial giant “estimates that data center power demand will grow 160 percent by 2030.” These energy demands are at complete odds with Biden’s aggressive climate agenda and could make the next generation of technology prohibitively expensive.
The emergence of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as a major Trump surrogate – and now vice presidential pick – may also be playing a role in emboldening Silicon Valley figures to throw their weight behind the former president. Vance has reportedly encouraged tech founders to publicly back Trump, giving others the courage to do so.
Whatever the reasons, the fact seems to be that Silicon Valley is becoming a political battleground. If Democrats lose their monopoly on the big money interests there, it could spell disaster for their political prospects throughout the country – and their loss is Republicans’ gain.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
