Silicon Valley’s Trump supporters envision ascendant startups, Vance 2028
On election night at Mar-a-Lago, once and future President Donald Trump milled around a gala with supporters who included Elon Musk, and a handful of loyalists from normally deep-Blue Silicon Valley. Palantir Technologies Inc. adviser Jacob Helberg, who attended, described the mood as “electric.”
“People are hopeful for the future. There’s a sense that it’s morning in America again,” he told Bloomberg in a phone interview from Florida on Wednesday. “There’s so much important work to be done ahead of us right now.”
Venture capitalists and technologists who bet early on Trump’s campaign are celebrating, and imagining a Republican presidency that could benefit them in a number of ways. The new administration could provide clearer and more favorable cryptocurrency regulations, skip tax increases on capital gains and take a lighter touch approach to antitrust — a top VC priority that would allow for more startup acquisitions and investor payouts.
Tech leaders also have ideas about who should staff the incoming Trump Administration. In a TV interview Friday, investor Joe Lonsdale said that while he would not join, “I have a lot of friends going in full-time.” Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey, a supporter of Trump since before he officially announced his candidacy the first time around, told Bloomberg Television Thursday that he’s “in touch” with the transition team charged with selecting people to fulfill positions including the next Secretary of Defense.
Luckey declined to discuss whether Trump mega donor Musk or others were leading candidates, but added, “There’s not a single name I’m unhappy with.”
“Printing money”
Silicon Valley once kept Washington at arm’s length, but this election the industry made a series of multimillion-dollar donations and a litany of endorsements to both presidential campaigns. The surge of GOP support and contributions set records in the largely left-leaning tech industry, splintering once-clubby relationships. Meanwhile, many VCs reasoned that Trump would be good for startups, even some who didn’t explicitly endorse him.
“Absolutely I’m going to be printing money in a Trump administration,” said venture investor Jason Calacanis, co-host of All-In, a weekly podcast, last month. “It is going to be obscene how many M&A deals and IPOs are going to occur.” Crypto industry investors in particular are celebrating the election results. Tatiana Koffman, general partner at Moonwalker Capital, said that if Trump lost, “we were bracing ourselves for a major correction.” Now, she predicts, “a lot of new capital” will flow into funds and startups.
There’s no guarantee tech will thrive under a Trump administration. Peter Thiel, who famously backed Trump in 2016 walked away frustrated. Both Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have a history of changing positions on policies and some of Trump’s political goals, like increasing tariffs on China and other countries, could have negative effects on young companies.
Many venture capitalists, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Khosla Ventures’ Vinod Khosla, were significant backers of Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris. Hundreds of VCs, including several billionaires, signed a “VCs for Kamala” pledge.
But the tech leaders who backed Trump are preparing to help him where they can, and could wield substantial influence. Helberg, who helped raise $4.5 million for Trump’s campaign along with his husband investor Keith Rabois, described his experience at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as filled with enthusiasm for “bold moonshot projects,” involving space technologies and reforms to reduce government waste and inefficiency.
Christian Garrett, a partner at venture capital firm 137 Ventures based in San Francisco, became a Trump supporter in 2020. Garrett was thrilled when Trump tapped Vance, who he said was a longtime friend and co-investor in Anduril. VCs, who invest over years or even decades instead of months, were already looking toward the next election, he said.
“A lot of people in our industry are very forward-thinking, so a lot of us would be very excited about his run in 2028.”
VCs for Vance
Vance, who spent time as a venture capitalist working for Thiel, has fervent support in conservative corners of the tech industry. “He will 100% be the candidate,” Rabois wrote Wednesday on X. Delian Asparouhov, an investor at Thiel-backed VC firm Founders Fund, posted a meme-ified picture of Vance’s face, and wrote, “The next 12 years” — a reference to Trump’s term and two terms for Vance.
Thiel, who gave Vance his first job in venture capital and bankrolled his Ohio Senate run, is a supporter, as is Texas-based VC Lonsdale. Lonsdale is effusive in conversations about a presidential run for Vance, a friend with whom he co-invested in weapons company Anduril. “I’d love to work closely with someone of my generation [who is] more intelligent, more data-driven,” Lonsdale told Bloomberg.
Helberg said the possibility of a Vance run would hinge on the Trump administration’s accomplishments. “The outcome in 2028 will be the outcome of what we do over the next four years.”
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