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The tales that matter on cash and politics within the race for the White Home
Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz mentioned he’ll make a “important donation” in assist of Kamala Harris’s presidential election marketing campaign, simply weeks after he and Marc Andreessen shocked Silicon Valley by backing her Republican rival Donald Trump.
Horowitz informed workers at his enterprise capital agency on Friday that he and his spouse Felicia can be backing the Democratic candidate and her operating mate Tim Walz, having been private mates with the vice-president for a decade.
“On account of our friendship, Felicia and I might be making a big donation to entities who assist the Harris-Walz marketing campaign,” he wrote in a word seen by the Monetary Instances.
The 2024 election, which is getting into its ultimate month, has divided Silicon Valley’s elite. Horowitz and Andreessen — two of essentially the most influential figures within the Valley and each long-term Democrats — introduced in mid-July that their agency can be supporting Trump’s marketing campaign. Together with Elon Musk and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, they turned the highest-profile Trump backers in tech.
Horowitz mentioned in a video explaining their determination on the time that the Democratic administration was “nuking the trade” and making life more and more difficult for start-ups and their buyers.
Only a week after the pair’s assist for Trump emerged, nonetheless, President Joe Biden introduced he would withdraw from the race. Democratic assist rapidly coalesced behind Harris as his alternative.
“Issues modified, Biden dropped out [and] Ben and Felicia discovered themselves able the place their good friend was operating,” mentioned an individual conversant in Horowitz’s pondering.
Horowitz’s assist for Harris might put him at odds with the agency he co-leads, which continues to again Trump on a lot of points.
For the reason that July endorsement of Trump, Andreessen Horowitz has donated to numerous funds affiliated with the previous president, engaged on areas the place it has important pursuits, equivalent to cryptocurrencies.
Ben and Felicia Horowitz are hopeful they’ll encourage Harris in direction of their place on numerous tech points however, in line with the individual conversant in Horowitz’s pondering, their donation doesn’t change Andreessen Horowitz’s assist for Trump on particular points equivalent to crypto and synthetic intelligence regulation.
The agency’s leaders are working with politicians on either side of the aisle to advance their agenda, and don’t need “all their eggs within the Trump basket”, the individual added.
In his word to workers on Friday, the contents of which have been first reported by Axios, Horowitz wrote: “Though I’ve had a number of conversations with vice-president Harris and her workforce on their possible tech insurance policies and am inspired by my perception in her, they haven’t but acknowledged what their tech coverage might be, so the agency won’t be updating its place in that regard.”
“As we acknowledged earlier, the Biden administration has been exceptionally harmful on tech coverage throughout the trade, however particularly because it pertains to crypto/blockchain and AI,” he added.
