- VCs are lobbing cash at the presidential election and key congressional races, FEC data shows.
- While most VCs favored Democrats, a16z's crypto giving dwarfed all other donations.
- The top individual donor was Greylock partner Reid Hoffman, who pledged support for Kamala Harris.
America is bitterly divided over politics, and the tech industry — once portrayed as a liberal bastion — is no different. Among the sector's investor class, these disputes typically play out behind closed doors, with checkbooks rather than angry social media posts.
This election cycle, investors at the top venture capital firms have plowed tens of millions of dollars into the election, both backing their favored political candidates and just cannily promoting commercial interests.
Business Insider trawled political donation data released by the Federal Elections Commission to see how employees at VC firms have donated by candidates and political entities as the hotly contested race enters its final phase.
The data is limited, focusing only on a subjective grouping of 10 high-profile firms, and cutting off at varying points over the summer. More recent FEC donor data will be released in the days and weeks ahead of the November 5 general election, often the most turbulent time in any cycle.
The sheer volume of donations captured in the FEC filings underscores the significance of the tech constituency in the political arena, how the Silicon Valley elite has embraced politics of late, and just how flooded by money modern American politics has become.
The big spenders
For venture capitalists, talking politics can invite scrutiny — or worse, turn off founders seeking funds for what might be the next big thing. It's part of the reason why many firms won't take positions on political issues or push a candidate on their employees.
While that hasn't stopped individual investors from voting with their dollars, many VC firms are quick to point out that donations do not represent the organization's political stance.
Except when they do.
Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, is the sole firm in our dataset to make political contributions directly. In this election cycle, it contributed $47 million to groups working to elect blockchain-friendly candidates, including Fairshake, a titanic crypto-industry backed super PAC. The firm is all-in on crypto, investing in Solana and Yuga Labs, and launched a $4.5 billion investment fund focused on this area in 2022.
While the names of the firm's founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, also appear on filings for donations to these groups, a16z says on its website that these contributions come from the firm, not the founders personally. Though the distinction a16z draws between itself and its founders might be slightly artificial, given Andreessen and Horowitz created, own, and named the firm after themselves.
For all the brouhaha about Andreessen and Horowitz putting millions of dollars behind Trump's latest bid for the White House and Horowitz hedging his bets with a planned donation to Harris, the data shows the two are a rare breed among venture investors: relatively bipartisan donors.
Horowitz sent roughly 59% of his personal political contributions to Republicans and a little under 40% to Democrats, while Andreessen more strongly favored Republicans this election cycle, with 64% of his donations.
In the time period covered by the data, a16z even eclipsed Greylock, where outgoing partner and Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman has personally pumped nearly $30 million in recorded donations into the presidential election and key congressional races.
Investors at Founders Fund, which has backed SpaceX and Palantir, are nearly 100% Republican in donations, though the bulk of contributions came from Keith Rabois, who left the firm in January to rejoin Khosla Ventures. Employees of venerable firm Kleiner Perkins are the opposite, giving almost entirely to Democratic causes, as is the case for Y Combinator, the colossal startup accelerator.
Like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital is largely bipartisan. Unlike a16z, its biggest donors are largely split on party lines. Michael Moritz, who left the firm midway through last year and continues to serve as an advisor to Sequoia Heritage, its wealth management group, gives to Democrats, while Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire donates to Republicans.
Number-crunching
When a candidate's campaign or other political entity receives political donations, they must report it either quarterly or monthly to the FEC, along with information about the donors, including the donor's employer. The federal agency processes these filings, before releasing them in a searchable format on its website.
The data analyzed for this story cuts off on August 31 for entities that report donations on a monthly basis (including presidential campaigns, national party committees, and some PACs), while the cut-off for entities that report quarterly (including Congressional committees and some PACs) is June 30. (The filing deadline for Q3 data for quarterly filing entities was October 15, but this data isn't yet readily available in full online.)
Business Insider selected 10 venture capital firms to focus on, taking into account fund size and cultural and industry significance. The list encompasses employees ranging from general partners and firm founders to marketers and executive assistants.
The findings should not be interpreted as an exhaustive accounting of all venture capital investors' donations to date, but as a comparative analysis of how some of the industry's most significant players have approached political giving over the summer as the election heated up.
Business Insider divided the recipients into three categories: Democrat-aligned, Republican-aligned, and unaffiliated — a grouping that includes both bipartisan groups like Fairshake and independents like West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, as well as organizations like The Lincoln Project, run by self-described Republicans but in practice supporting Democratic causes.
Hoffman vs. Horowitz
Hoffman, the top individual donor, has developed a reputation as tech's Democratic Party standard-bearer. In this election cycle, records show his efforts include $2 million to help fund an unusual write-in effort for President Joe Biden in New Hampshire, and millions to joint fundraising committees for Harris after Biden dropped out. Hoffman also gave $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Nikki Haley, the last major candidate to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination.
Most donors more closely resemble Hoffman than Horowitz: clearly partisan, with an overwhelming majority of their donations going to support one party.
Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures is another of the biggest donors on the Democratic side of the aisle, with more than $3 million in recorded donations during the time period to recipients including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Harris' presidential campaign. Khosla's giving puts him just above John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins and architect of cleantech investing, though he hasn't managed funds for the firm in a decade.
Sequoia Capital's Doug Leone is one of VC's most prolific GOP-aligned political donors, giving his almost $3.8 million to the National Republican Committee and other causes.
The vehicle of choice for many of these donations is via super PACs, a controversial political fundraising tool that can raise unlimited funds — bypassing FEC limits on donations to candidates and other committees — but cannot directly coordinate with candidates. Asides from Fairshake, some of the biggest super PACs out there favored by VC investors include Future Forward PAC, a tech billionaire-linked Democrat-supporting group, and America PAC, a right-wing entity founded by Elon Musk.
Investors also gave to several joint fundraising committees, which take money for multiple candidates or organizations. They, too, became favored over the years because a joint fundraising committee allows candidates to rake in cash while sharing the costs of fundraising — think website hosting fees, high-end hotels, and catering for splashy Hamptons fundraisers. The most well-loved committees in our dataset were the Harris Victory Fund and Harris Action Fund, the joint fundraising efforts between the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and state Democratic committees.
Reached for comment by Business Insider, none of the named investment firms agreed to make employees available for interviews about their political giving. Perhaps, from the donors' perspectives, they don't need to: They're already putting their money where their mouth is.
Have a tip or a story? Connect with Melia Russell via email at [email protected] or by phone at (603) 913-3085. Reach Rob Price at [email protected]. For sensitive matters, use the Signal app on a non-work device for encrypted messaging.