Chuck Darwin<p>Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain</p><p>Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, <br>he invited the cream of Silicon Valley's <a href="https://c.im/tags/tech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>tech</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/elite" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>elite</span></a> to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower.</p><p>It was an awkward affair. <br>Facebook’s Sheryl <a href="https://c.im/tags/Sandberg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Sandberg</span></a>, Google’s Larry <a href="https://c.im/tags/Page" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Page</span></a> and Amazon’s Jeff <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bezos" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bezos</span></a> had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation. </p><p>But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none of them had seen him coming.</p><p>But one person was in his element. Seated next to Trump, uncomplicatedly beaming, was a South African-born tech entrepreneur whose early investment in Facebook had made him billions.</p><p>This was <a href="https://c.im/tags/Peter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Peter</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Thiel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Thiel</span></a>. </p><p>And if this past week marked an inflection point, and there are many reasons to believe it did, <br>the seeds of it were planted in the summer of 2016. </p><p>This was when Trump was the outside candidate. The man no respectable west coast tech entrepreneur or east coast business elite wanted to touch.</p><p>Last week marked a decisive end to that era. </p><p>A week in which Donald Trump not only appointed a <a href="https://c.im/tags/tech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>tech</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/bro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>bro</span></a> to be his second in command, choosing Senator JD <a href="https://c.im/tags/Vance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Vance</span></a> to be his VP, <br>but in which he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Elon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Elon</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Musk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Musk</span></a>.</p><p>Musk has said he will donate<br>💥 $45m a month to Trump’s campaign, <br>💥though his ongoing endorsement on X, <br> the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more.</p><p>But it’s some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon who are perhaps even more telling. </p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Marc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Marc</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Andreessen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Andreessen</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/Ben" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Ben</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Horowitz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Horowitz</span></a>, who own one of the most storied and influential venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley, <br>have declared they’re all in for Trump alongside a host of lesser-known but important names who have either followed suit or who beat them to the punch, <br>including the <a href="https://c.im/tags/Winklevoss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Winklevoss</span></a> twins and investors and podcast hosts <a href="https://c.im/tags/Chamath" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Chamath</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Palihapitiya" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Palihapitiya</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/David" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>David</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Sacks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Sacks</span></a>.</p><p>Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. And in that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked. </p><p>(And whose data mining firm, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Palantir" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Palantir</span></a>, picked up billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Department of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.)</p><p>The principle that underpins Silicon Valley investing is to bet early and bet big. </p><p>It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. And last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.</p><p>Because JD <a href="https://c.im/tags/Vance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Vance</span></a>, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature. </p><p>He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers. <br>Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Mithril" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Mithril</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Capital" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Capital</span></a>, backed him to start his own venture fund, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Narya" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Narya</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Capital" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Capital</span></a>, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate. <br>Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”.</p><p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/20/tech-broligarchs-court-trump-vance-elon-musk-peter-thiel?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/us-news/articl</span><span class="invisible">e/2024/jul/20/tech-broligarchs-court-trump-vance-elon-musk-peter-thiel?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</span></a></p>