BarcelonaLocated in the southern part of San Francisco Bay, in California, Silicon Valley is the area where some of the world’s leading technology firms, such as Facebook, Netflix, Apple or Google, are concentrated, as well as large investment funds . The West Coast state is one of the great strongholds of the Democratic Party, where it has won since 1992. The hub technology until now was also a progressive voice. A month ago, however, the decision of twenty tycoons broke the plans. Eighteen Silicon Valley billionaires decided in June to create a super PAC and in recent weeks have contributed, with their fortunes, to boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump.
America PAC has already raised $8.7 million. Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, a software platform for the analysis of big data, has given $1 million; and the Winklevoss twins, cryptocurrency investors, have contributed $250,000 each. Jimmy John Liautaud, founder of the popular sandwich chain that bears his name, as well as Douglas Leone, co-founder of Sequoia Capital, a technology venture capital firm, have also made contributions of $1 million each.
There are also those who have been contributing money to the Republican presidential race for years. This is the case of Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and technology investor who accumulates a fortune of 7.8 billion dollars, according to the magazine Forbes. Thiel, a conservative donor for two decades, has been a key figure in the rise of vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who worked at his fund. In the 2022 midterm elections, the investor contributed $15 million to his senatorial bid. In fact, as explained to ARA Jaime Caro, doctor in contemporary history and researcher at thealt-rightthe far-right movement, “2022 is when (the millionaires) stick their heads out and raise the alarms, but now we’re at a turning point.”
Additionally, X owner Elon Musk has pledged a monthly donation of $46 million to the former president’s campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal. Musk, who until a few weeks ago had avoided positioning himself as a Trump supporter, said in a tweet after the attack on the former president: “I support Donald Trump.” “It’s a very important amount of money that will allow him to do a lot of events, advertising campaigns and buy a lot of digital ads,” explains Caro.
Interest in protectionist policies
One of the causes that explains the turn to the right of the hub technology are the protectionist policies that Donald Trump instituted, in 2018, from the presidency to favor the competitiveness of American companies. Caro details that “Silicon Valley has seen that protectionism can be useful to fight against the Chinese technology giants”. Although Biden continued certain isolationist measures, the tech magnates see Trump as “someone who can better execute these policies for their interests.” “What these billionaires who come from Silicon Valley like is that their money is efficient,” says the analyst, who remembers that “the most effective PACs are those that are created when there is less time left for the elections because it is when more votes are decided”.
“Silicon Valley has seen that protectionism can be useful in fighting the Chinese tech giants”
But there are more arguments in favor of the California tycoons. Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, tells ARA that the former president’s refusal to regulate tech firms and his support for cryptocurrencies have also sparked interest of some investors to bring Trump back to the White House. While “many venture capitalists oppose Trump and are concerned about climate change, social issues and individual rights,” Loge explains that “some high-profile investors, who tend to be more conservative and opposed to regulation, they feel more represented by Trump”. “Now they will self-promote like the republican boys of Silicon Valley”, concludes Jaime Caro, who believes that in the coming weeks more billionaires could join in financing Donald Trump’s campaign.
Biden, closer to resignation
Pressure from the Democratic Party hopes to get an isolated Biden to finally give up the candidacy. Even Barack Obama is already saying internally that Biden has to go. On Thursday, the American media were already echoing the possibility that Biden would announce his resignation this weekend. The Washington Post has published that the old one speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has told Democratic congressmen that she believes Biden can be changed “soon.” However, the Biden team has come out to say that the current president will return to the campaign the following week after passing the isolation for covid.
At the same time, donors have also turned their backs on him. Last week one of the Democratic Party’s main super PACs, Future Forward, decided to freeze $90 billion in donations while Biden continued to top the ballot.
The campaign had hoped to raise about $50 million from major donors to the Biden Victory Fund, which funnels money to the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties. That was the amount that major donors contributed in June, according to a person briefed on the matter.
But after Biden’s disastrous debate performance late last month, that number will likely be less than $25 million in July, an extremely small amount for a summer month in the midst of a presidential race, according to four people. all equally informed, who requested anonymity to reveal details about the campaign’s finances.
Source: www.ara.cat
