Former President Trump visited Democratic stronghold San Francisco last week to meet with a growing number of conservative technology executives, as Republicans appear to be making inroads in traditionally Democratic Silicon Valley.
At a fundraiser hosted Thursday night by venture capitalists David Sachs and Chamath Palihapitiya, Trump brought in some of the biggest names in the technology and cryptocurrency industries to raise millions of dollars.
While there are some longtime Republican supporters in Silicon Valley, a growing number of former Democratic donors are backing Trump against President Biden.
Sean Maguire, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, came out in support of the former president last month after he was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
“I donated $300,000 to President Trump,” Maguire said in a post on social platform X. “The timing is no coincidence.”
In a lengthy post explaining his decision, Maguire said he had previously donated to and voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Although he said he “became disillusioned and did not vote” in the 2020 election, records show he continued to fund lower-level Democratic candidates throughout the election, according to campaign finance tracking site Open Secrets.
“Now in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I support Trump,” Maguire added.
Technology adviser Jacob Helberg, who attended last Thursday’s fundraiser, was also previously a prominent Democratic donor, having donated to 2020 Democratic presidential nominee rivals Pete Buttigieg, Vice President Harris and Biden.
But that appears to have changed in late 2021, when Helberg began donating to several Republicans, including Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, according to Open Secrets.
Helberg has since donated $1 million to the Trump campaign, according to The Washington Post.
“The enthusiasm and excitement for a Republican presidential nominee last night was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Silicon Valley,” Helberg said in a statement after a fundraiser for the former president in San Francisco.
“This event is evidence that President Trump’s campaign is creating a bipartisan and generational realignment among tech founders, millennials, gay people and Jewish Americans, making him more competitive even in the most traditionally Democratic communities,” he added.
Neil Malhotra, a professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, who surveyed hundreds of technology company leaders for a 2017 paper, said wealthy tech entrepreneurs have historically been “hardly left-leaning” on most issues except regulation.
“Since about 2020, there have been some prominent figures in both the venture capital world and the founder world who have taken a more right-wing turn,” Malhotra told The Hill.
“But we don’t know whether this is representative of a broader group of people or just a small, prominent group that may reflect something like a canary in the coal mine,” he added.
Malhotra said the Biden administration’s aggressive regulation of big tech companies and its cautious stance on cryptocurrencies could be influencing this shift among some tech leaders.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have brought major antitrust lawsuits against Google, Amazon and Apple under the Biden administration, but antitrust litigation began under the Trump administration, who also filed lawsuits against Google and Meta.
Biden has also angered some in the tech industry with his administration’s approach to regulating cryptocurrencies.
The president recently vetoed a congressional resolution seeking to overturn Securities and Exchange Commission rules that the cryptocurrency industry opposed.
Biden also refused to support the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act, which aims to redefine the classification of digital assets, though he did not explicitly say he would veto the bill.
“There’s always been an atmosphere in Silicon Valley of let’s create, let’s produce, let’s leave us alone. We don’t think we should or need to answer for some of the problematic consequences of our technological creations,” Democratic strategist Rodell Molyneaux told The Hill.
“I think they see Trump as someone who is going to leave them alone, let them do what they want, let them continue to create without any interference,” he said.
Molineaux noted that despite Trump’s antitrust efforts during his first term, he has recently tried to lure corporate executives back to his camp with promises of deregulation and tax cuts.
Republican lawmakers are preparing legislation to extend key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, President Trump’s landmark tax cut bill that is set to expire at the end of 2025.
If Republicans gain full control of the White House and Congress, they will have a chance to update some aspects of the law that are strongly supported by big business and the financial sector, such as the 21% corporate tax rate.
The TCJA also lowered personal income taxes across the board, which could lead to a sharp rise in taxes for high-income earners if Democrats are able to thwart the rise of the Republican Party.
“That’s exactly his sales pitch to corporate America, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s also his sales pitch to Silicon Valley: ‘Hey, support me and I’ll tell you nothing,'” Molyneaux said.
While some Silicon Valley money may have gone to Trump, a significant amount of money is “still betting on Biden,” he added.
According to the Post and Yahoo Finance, Silicon Valley figures to support the president’s re-election include venture capitalists Vinod Khosla and Michael Moritz, Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Mehta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
