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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 stated he’ll make a “important donation” in help 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 instructed workers at his enterprise capital agency on Friday that he and his spouse Felicia can be backing the Democratic candidate and her working mate Tim Walz, having been private associates with the vice-president for a decade.
“Because of our friendship, Felicia and I will likely be making a big donation to entities who help the Harris-Walz marketing campaign,” he wrote in a observe seen by the Monetary Instances.
The 2024 election, which is coming into its ultimate month, has divided Silicon Valley’s elite. Horowitz and Andreessen — two of probably 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 stated in a video explaining their choice on the time that the Democratic administration was “nuking the business” and making life more and more difficult for start-ups and their buyers.
Only a week after the pair’s help for Trump emerged, nevertheless, President Joe Biden introduced he would withdraw from the race. Democratic help rapidly coalesced behind Harris as his substitute.
“Issues modified, Biden dropped out [and] Ben and Felicia discovered themselves ready the place their pal was working,” stated an individual conversant in Horowitz’s considering.
Horowitz’s help for Harris might put him at odds with the agency he co-leads, which continues to again Trump on plenty of points.
Because the 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, akin to cryptocurrencies.
Ben and Felicia Horowitz are hopeful they will encourage Harris in the direction of their place on numerous tech points however, in accordance with the particular person conversant in Horowitz’s considering, their donation doesn’t change Andreessen Horowitz’s help for Trump on particular points akin to crypto and synthetic intelligence regulation.
The agency’s leaders are working with politicians on each side of the aisle to advance their agenda, and don’t need “all their eggs within the Trump basket”, the particular person added.
In his observe to workers on Friday, the contents of which had been first reported by Axios, Horowitz wrote: “Though I’ve had a number of conversations with vice-president Harris and her workforce on their seemingly tech insurance policies and am inspired by my perception in her, they haven’t but said what their tech coverage will likely be, so the agency won’t be updating its place in that regard.”
“As we said earlier, the Biden administration has been exceptionally damaging on tech coverage throughout the business, however particularly because it pertains to crypto/blockchain and AI,” he added.
