AILSA CHANG, HOST:
With just 90 days to go until the election, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are looking to Silicon Valley's deep pockets, and Big Tech venture capitalists are lining up to invest in this presidential race. On one side, Elon Musk and a handful of billionaires who say they will do what it takes to get Trump reelected. And on the other side, hundreds of VCs for Team Harris. Here to explain how the battle lines are drawn is NPR tech correspondent Dara Kerr. Hi, Dara.
DARA KERR, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, let's start with this big push for Team Trump because, in years past, it didn't seem like the really big names in Silicon Valley that we're talking about rallied so loudly for Trump. So what changed?
KERR: Well, in two words - Elon Musk.
CHANG: Uh-huh.
KERR: Yep. Things really heated up last month after the assassination attempt on Trump. Within minutes of the incident, Musk posted on X, the platform he now owns and that used to be Twitter, and he said he endorsed Donald Trump and added that now-famous video of Trump with blood on his face, pumping his fist in the air.
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ELON MUSK: I thought Trump displayed courage under fire.
KERR: It was that courage under fire, as you can hear Musk telling podcaster Lex Fridman last week, that got Trump his endorsement. Musk's support for a super PAC came next. That PAC has already reportedly spent more than $20 million according to CNBC.
And at the same time, other notable Silicon Valley billionaires came out strong for Trump. Investors like David Sacks, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. What's interesting is that many of them use X as a megaphone to cheer on Trump, and some of them are also spreading memes and misinformation about Harris.
CHANG: How much would you say that this is all part of some rightward shift in Silicon Valley? Is it?
KERR: Well, at first, it did seem like it was going that way. There was a spattering of VCs for Harris, but then something bigger happened, a major pushback against this Trump shift.
LESLIE FEINZAIG: The story about Silicon Valley being left or right or moving in one direction or another is missing the point that most people have nuanced thoughts about all of this stuff.
KERR: That's venture capitalist Leslie Feinzaig. She's not a well-known VC, and she's an independent voter, but she didn't want Musk and his billionaire associates dominating the conversation.
FEINZAIG: I was feeling some frustration around the tenor of the conversation around the upcoming election, and I went online and bought a URL.
KERR: She bought a URL called VCs for Kamala. It sat dormant for three days as she consulted friends and colleagues, and she feared a backlash of going toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley. But, she says, this election is crucial for the stability of the country and her industry. So she held her breath and launched the website.
CHANG: OK, so what happened? Has there been a lot of backlash?
KERR: No, it's just the opposite. There's been a real groundswell. Within just two days, more than 100 venture capitalists signed on to the website's pledge to vote for Harris. And we're talking about a who's who in the VC world - people like Mark Cuban and LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and the billionaire mover and shaker Ron Conway.
So now, just a little over a week later, more than 800 have signed on. And all together, this group has more than 300 billion in assets under management. And the group is holding its first event today, an online fundraiser.
But remember, Elon Musk is the world's richest person, and the other VCs supporting Trump have billions too. So whichever way it goes, it's safe to say this campaign season, we'll see unprecedented amounts of spending.
CHANG: That is NPR tech correspondent Dara Kerr. Thank you, Dara.
KERR: Thank you.
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