Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures outside Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., as he faces a criminal trial on charges he falsified business records to conceal a 2016 payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels Found guilty.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
Two tech investors and podcasters will host Donald Trump in San Francisco on Thursday for a high-profile fundraiser, a sign of an industry once hostile to the former president’s response to the Republican nominee. The latest sign of passion.
David Sacks is a well-known venture capitalist and “Paypal Mafia” is holding a fundraiser at his Pacific Heights home. Tickets are priced at $50,000 per person and $300,000 per person, which includes benefits such as photos with Trump. A week ago, Trump was convicted in New York of 34 felony counts of forgery.
The co-host is Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of investment firm Social Capital, who is known on Wall Street for his push for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) during the tech boom of 2020 and 2021. Saxophone and Palihapitiya are two of the four hosts of the popular show.
The event was sold out and expected to raise $12 million for Trump. Sachs declined to comment. As of the time of publication, Palihapitiya had not responded to a request for comment.
The fundraiser in the heart of the tech capital represents a growing shift in sentiment toward Trump, especially in a place that has historically been a liberal stronghold. Although Sacks has long been a conservative, he donated to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump. Palihapitiya donated more than $250,000 to Biden in 2020, according to campaign records.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of people who support Trump, but they don’t want to admit it,” Sacks said on the podcast last week. “I think this event will break that deadlock. Maybe it will create a cascade of preferences where all of a sudden it becomes acceptable to admit the truth.”
That’s not to say Trump lacked support from big-money techies in the past.
PayPal co-founder and prominent investor Peter Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention while serving as a member of Trump’s transition team.
On July 21, 2016, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel spoke at the evening session of the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
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But the atmosphere remained tense. Also in 2016, Intel’s Then-CEO Brian Krzanich planned to hold a fundraiser for Trump but abruptly canceled it after the media got wind of the story and started asking questions.
In July of the same year, about 140 well-known technical experts wrote a open envelope condemned Trump’s politics, writing that he “campaigned on anger, bigotry, fear of new ideas and new people, and fundamental beliefs that America is weak and in decline.”
Still, Republican policies are generally considered friendlier to the tech industry because they support less regulation and lower taxes. One of Trump’s signature achievements in office has been deep tax cuts, and he has taken a tough stance on China while creating exemptions to protect technology companies from tariffs. He also awarded government contracts to defense technology companies such as Palantir, Thiel co-founded the company.
Much of the shift to Trump ahead of the 2024 election stems from disdain for President Joe Biden’s policies. Under Biden, the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken action against cryptocurrencies, and his antitrust regulators have cracked down on big tech companies.
For those in the Sachs camp, there are a number of questions.
“Biden took office promising a return to normal,” Sachs Posted on X June 2, “What did he actually give us? The economy slowed. Inflation soared. The world was on fire. A partisan witch hunt with a grudge. Democrats threw their weight behind the law because they had nothing else to fall back on.”
watch: Venture capital welcomes Trump fundraising
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