US technology and business leaders including Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, venture capital pioneer Doug Leone and the Winklevoss twins have donated to a new super-political action committee supporting Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
America Pac has raised more than $8.7mn since its launch in June, according to a public filing, including several $1mn donations from Silicon Valley investors who have publicly backed Trump in recent weeks.
The donors include Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire and Valor Equity Partners founder Antonio Gracias, as well as Leone, a co-founder of Sequoia Capital, and Lonsdale of 8VC and Palantir.
One person with direct knowledge of the super Pac said Tesla and X chief executive 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.
Coal titan Joe Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners, as well as Jimmy John Liautaud, the founder of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain, also each made $1mn donations, while Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each donated $250,000, the filings showed.
Silicon Valley has long been considered one of the most liberal regions in the US, but some tech leaders, disenchanted with President Joe Biden’s positions on regulation and taxes, have been tilting politically to the right.
Trump, in turn, 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 candidate at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “Last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt,” Musk wrote on X. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman also said on Saturday he was “formally” endorsing Trump.
Musk also praised Trump’s “excellent” pick of senator JD Vance, a former venture capitalist, as his running mate on Monday. “Trump-Vance,” Musk wrote on X. “Resounds with victory.” Musk had previously supported Democrats including Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Vance has long-standing ties to elite technology circles, having worked for Peter Thiel’s venture fund Mithril Capital in San Francisco between 2015 and 2017 and later for Washington-based venture fund Revolution, started by AOL chief executive Steve Case.
Thiel gave $15mn to support Vance’s Senate run in 2022 through a donation to the Protect Ohio Values Pac, according to federal election records.
Jacob Helberg, a Palantir executive and big Trump donor, said Vance was “a pro-technology and pro-America First pick who will be an extraordinary advocate for President Trump’s agenda and the American people”.
Vance also launched his own venture firm Narya Capital in 2020 with backing from Thiel, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, start-up investor Scott Dorsey and former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
The Cincinnati, Ohio-based firm, which had assets under management of about $200mn last year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, aimed to channel more Silicon Valley funding into US cities underserved by tech investment.
Some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures have become increasingly active in supporting the Trump 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 $1mn to support Trump.
According to 2022 disclosures, the most recent data available, Vance held personal investments in more than 100 public and private companies including Anduril Industries, a Thiel-backed artificial intelligence defence group, and space simulation company Slingshot Aerospace, along with up to $100,000 worth of Walmart shares.
Vance also personally invested in controversial video platform Rumble, owning a stake worth up to $300,000 in 2022, and in Christian prayer app Hallow, in which his stake was worth up to $100,000 that year.
Vance also disclosed ownership of between $100,001 and $250,000 in bitcoin on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in 2022.
