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Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz stated he’ll make a “vital donation” in help of Kamala Harris’s presidential election marketing campaign, simply weeks after he and Marc Andreessen shocked Silicon Valley by backing her Republican rival Donald Trump.
Horowitz advised workers at his enterprise capital agency on Friday that he and his spouse Felicia can be backing the Democratic candidate and her working mate Tim Walz, having been private mates with the vice-president for a decade.
“On account of our friendship, Felicia and I will probably be making a big donation to entities who help the Harris-Walz marketing campaign,” he wrote in a notice seen by the Monetary Occasions.
The 2024 election, which is coming into its remaining month, has divided Silicon Valley’s elite. Horowitz and Andreessen — two of probably the most influential figures within the Valley and each long-term Democrats — introduced in mid-July that their agency can be supporting Trump’s marketing campaign. Together with Elon Musk and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, they grew to become the highest-profile Trump backers in tech.
Horowitz stated in a video explaining their choice on the time that the Democratic administration was “nuking the trade” and making life more and more difficult for start-ups and their traders.
Only a week after the pair’s help for Trump emerged, nonetheless, President Joe Biden introduced he would withdraw from the race. Democratic help rapidly coalesced behind Harris as his alternative.
“Issues modified, Biden dropped out [and] Ben and Felicia discovered themselves able the place their pal was working,” stated an individual conversant in Horowitz’s considering.
Horowitz’s help for Harris might put him at odds with the agency he co-leads, which continues to again Trump on quite a few points.
For the reason that July endorsement of Trump, Andreessen Horowitz has donated to numerous funds affiliated with the previous president, engaged on areas the place it has vital pursuits, reminiscent of cryptocurrencies.
Ben and Felicia Horowitz are hopeful they will encourage Harris in direction of their place on varied tech points however, in keeping with the individual conversant in Horowitz’s considering, their donation doesn’t change Andreessen Horowitz’s help for Trump on particular points reminiscent of crypto and synthetic intelligence regulation.
The agency’s leaders are working with politicians on either side of the aisle to advance their agenda, and don’t need “all their eggs within the Trump basket”, the individual added.
In his notice to workers on Friday, the contents of which had been first reported by Axios, Horowitz wrote: “Though I’ve had a number of conversations with vice-president Harris and her staff on their possible tech insurance policies and am inspired by my perception in her, they haven’t but acknowledged what their tech coverage will probably be, so the agency is not going to be updating its place in that regard.”
“As we acknowledged earlier, the Biden administration has been exceptionally damaging on tech coverage throughout the trade, however particularly because it pertains to crypto/blockchain and AI,” he added.