Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, a trio of venture capital pioneers and the Winklevoss twins are among the US tech and business leaders who have donated to a new super political action committee backing Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
America Pac has raised more than $8.7 million since its launch in June, according to a public filing, including several $1 million donations from Silicon Valley investors who have publicly backed Trump in recent weeks.
Donors include Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire and Valor Equity Partners founder Antonio Gracias, as well as Doug Leone, a co-founder of Sequoia Capital, and Lonsdale of 8VC and Palantir.
A person with direct knowledge of the super Pac said Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk was planning to make a donation. Musk is a close business associate of many of the donors, including Lonsdale. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have told staff at their venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that they will back Trump.
“This is a new effort because they think there’s a lot at stake on the crypto side, on the AI agenda at the firm. . . It does not mean support for [Trump’s] views on immigration,” said a person with direct knowledge of their plans.
Coal titan Joe Craft, chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners, as well as Jimmy John Liautaud, founder of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain, also made donations of $1 million, while Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each gave $250,000, the filings showed.
Silicon Valley has long been considered one of the most liberal regions in the US, but some tech leaders, disillusioned with President Joe Biden’s stances on regulation and taxes, have leaned politically to the right.
Trump, on the other hand, has played to libertarian-leaning entrepreneurs and venture capitalists with pledges to protect free speech and support the cryptocurrency industry.
Musk endorsed Trump on Saturday, shortly after an assassination attempt on the Republican nominee at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “The last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt,” Musk wrote on X. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman also said Saturday he was “formally” endorsing Trump.
Musk also praised Trump’s “brilliant” choice of Sen. JD Vance, a former venture capitalist, as his running mate on Monday. “Trump-Vance,” Musk wrote on X. “Heel with victory.” Musk had previously endorsed Democrats including Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Vance has long ties to elite tech circles, having worked for Peter Thiel’s venture fund Mithril Capital in San Francisco between 2015 and 2017 and later for the Washington-based venture fund Revolution, started by the chief executive of AOL Steve Case.
Thiel gave $15 million to support Vance’s 2022 Senate bid through a donation to the Protect Ohio Values Pac, according to federal election records.
Jacob Helberg, a Palantir executive and major Trump donor, said Vance was “a pro-tech, pro-America First voter who will be an outstanding advocate for President Trump’s agenda and the American people.”
Vance also launched his venture firm Narya Capital in 2020 with backing from Thiel, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, seed investor Scott Dorsey and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
The Cincinnati, Ohio-based firm, which had about $200 million in assets under management last year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, has been aiming to funnel more Silicon Valley funds into U.S. cities. underserved by technology investments.
Some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures have become increasingly active in supporting Trump’s campaign. Venture capitalist David Sacks, who hosted a fundraiser last month at his San Francisco home where Vance introduced Trump, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures, told the Financial Times he would also donate $1 million to support Trump.
According to the 2022 disclosures, the most recent data available, Vance held personal investments in more than 100 public and private companies, including Anduril Industries, an AI advocacy group backed by Thiel, and space simulation company Slingshot Aerospace, together worth up to $100,000. Walmart stock.
Vance also personally invested in controversial video platform Rumble, owning a stake worth up to $300,000 in 2022, and Christian prayer app Hallow, in which his stake was worth up to $100,000 that year.
Vance also disclosed owning between $100,001 and $250,000 in bitcoins on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in 2022.