Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz Will Donate to Trump

axios.com

13 points·sseagull··5 comments

Duh, they're investors in VP candidate JD Vance's VC fund. Plus part of the Trump/Vance platform is breaking up big tech, which will open up the startup ecosystem for investors like Andreessen, Horowitz, Thiel, et al to fund new fruitful startups in it. Trump is also pro-crypto, which is handy when a16z is a huge long-term investor in blockchain startups.

Within Silicon Valley, the big political split is likely to be the employees of Big Tech on the Democratic side vs. the VCs, founders, and other participants in the startup ecosystem, who are lining up behind the Republican party. Both sides are talking their book: a Trump victory promises significant disruption for Big Tech companies and their employees, and that disruption is opportunity for people taking positions against the incumbents.

Trump is also responsible for the tax code changes to Section 174 requiring R&D expenses be amortized, which is a big drag on early-stage startups. Seems like simple and ordinary upper-class support for upper-class tax cuts, to me.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That tramples curiosity."

That's the unfortunate thing about unbridled corporate personhood and speech through PACs -- The folks who pull the strings are quite political and able to direct large stacks of cash to their politics and that drags politics front and center into the professional world.

That makes it quite relevant for hackers everywhere, IMO, and blurs the lines one might otherwise be willing to draw on avoiding 'ideological battles'.

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