Silicon Valley’s Tech Billionaires Lean Into Trump Campaign, Promising Millions of Dollars for GOP Coffers
Billionaire Elon Musk is promising to donate $45 million a month to help elect President Trump.
Silicon Valley’s most influential billionaires are queuing up to line President Trump’s pockets four months out from the presidential election, with billionaire Elon Musk promising $45 million a month through Election Day.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Mr. Musk, the owner of X and chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, plans to begin donations to the America PAC, a committee supporting Trump, this month.
The committee also has other high-profile donors, like a Sequoia partner, Shaun Maguire, and the Valor Equity Partners founder, Antonio Gracias.
Two venture capitalists, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have also told staff at their firm that they are backing Trump, according to the Financial Times.
“This is a new endeavor because they feel there is so much at stake on the crypto side, on the AI agenda at the firm,” one person familiar with their plans said.
Two major cryptocurrency investors, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have also made major donations to Trump, according to Federal Elections Commission filings.
The tech capitalists are only the most recent of America’s richest to throw their weight behind the Republican nominee. Other traditional Republican backers, like the Alliance Resource Partners chief executive, Joe Craft, have donated at least $1 million to Trump, even after supporting his primary opponents.
The news of Mr. Musk’s major investment in Trump’s election efforts comes as some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest investors appear to have had a hand in Trump’s vice presidential choice.
In selecting Senator Vance as his running mate, Mr. Trump embraced a protégé of billionaire Peter Thiel, who was once a major financial backer of Trump but whose donations had dried up in recent years. Axios reports that Mr. Musk and billionaire David Sacks were pushing for Trump to choose Mr. Vance behind the scenes.
While it’s not known whether Mr. Thiel will be resuming donations to Trump himself, he has previously said he won’t be supporting either party in 2024.