00:47:21 · S6, S8
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00:47:51 · S8, Max Read, Teddy Schleifer
Ad[00:47:51] S8: Today's AI builders need infrastructure that scales with their ambitions. IREN is a vertically integrated AI cloud platform delivering data centers, compute, and software for AI training and inference underpinned by its expansive portfolio of land and grid connected power in renewable rich regions globally. IREN's AI cloud gives direct access to NVIDIA GPUs, scalable from hundreds to thousands. For builders, that means direct access to AI compute, rapid scaling, and predictable pricing. IREN, AI cloud for the next big thing. [00:48:26] S1: Welcome back to Hard Fork. I'm here with Times reporter Teddy Schleifer to talk about winners and losers in tech from this week's elections. So Teddy, you've spent the last several months reporting on campaign money, especially as it pertains to the tech industry. In this cycle, I know from your reporting, the top 20 donors injected about $2,000,000,000 into the midterms. More than 800,000,000 of that came from the tech industry in one way or another. I wanna start by identifying the big players. When we're talking about the top tech donors, who are we talking about? [00:48:54] S3: Sure. I mean, the the number one tech donor is a guy named Elon Musk. [00:48:58] S1: Okay. [00:48:59] S3: I'm gonna [00:48:59] S1: write this down.
00:48:59 · Max Read, Teddy Schleifer
[00:48:59] S1: write this down. [00:48:59] S3: Sorry. He spent... Looks like about 470 to $500,000,000, somewhere in that range, on the election. Other tech people that folks may have heard of are Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, spent a $100,000,000 themselves. There's also people like the company Coinbase. [00:49:19] S1: Mhmm. [00:49:19] S3: Which joined Andreessen Horowitz in backing a big crypto super PAC this cycle. And there's a couple other individuals such as Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, who spent a ton of money on MAGA Inc, the Trump super PAC, and also has been a huge proponent of all this money supporting, quote, unquote, pro AI politicians. [00:49:40] S1: A couple years ago, it felt like a sort of conventional wisdom was coalescing among at least some people in the valley that, they were so rich. Maybe Elon in particular was so rich, they could really just spend freely and get what they wanted out of politics. Feels a little bit like a big lesson from this election is that that's not really true. Tell me a little bit about how spending has functioned here, it's maybe different from two years ago, and and how... What kind of lessons we might take away from it.
00:50:05 · Teddy Schleifer
[00:50:05] S3: Sure. I mean, so now sixteen years ago, the Citizens United decision comes down from the Supreme Court, which kinda begins this new era of anything goes billionaire political spending. And now people can cut checks of unlimited sizes to political committees. And every cycle, you know, the the zeros keep adding up to more and more. So in 2,024, you know, Elon Musk spent somewhere around $300,000,000, and this is just in disclosed giving. We're not even touching all the undisclosed giving that happens. And the narrative formed, I think, somewhat unfairly that, like, it was a it was a raging success. So the the... What Musk did in 2024 was perceived as successful. And I think the the the gospel of kind of the entire world of of money and politics is that money helps with politics, that you you win elections by spending more money. This cycle, I think... And and I I... This is a meta critique of my own stuff over the last decade. Like, I don't know. I mean I mean, there there are times when that's true. There are times when it's not true. Last night was a vivid illustration of the fact that you can spend, you know, in Musk's case, $500,000,000 or $450,000,000, and this stuff doesn't necessarily convert.
00:51:15 · Max Read, Teddy Schleifer
[00:51:15] S1: Yeah. So part of what I wanna do in talking to you is create, I don't wanna call it a loser list. Let's call it like a return on investment power ranking. I wanna know whose money was well spent and whose money wasn't. And I wanna talk about some of the people that you were just mentioning. Seems to me... And and and I... I'm gonna throw out the the names that seem like they've done particularly well, and I want you to feel free to challenge me if you disagree. Reid Hoffman is basically the only Democratic donor among the tech group in the $20,000,000,000. It's gotta feel like he did pretty well with his money. [00:51:45] S3: Yeah. I mean, Reid's single biggest investment this cycle, at least publicly, was he spent $17,000,000 on supporting James Talarico, including in the Democratic primary, which was competitive. And, you know, of course, the general election was was competitive, and Talarico won by, you know, a shockingly large margin. Makes you wonder if Reid didn't even need to spend anything in the general, honestly, in retrospect. You know? Yes. He he he is somebody who knows a thing or two about political spending at this point. He's been doing this now for, like, ten or fifteen years. And he believed that Talarico was, you know, a generational talent and the sort of person who could win Texas, and, you know, he won. So [00:52:22] S1: So we can maybe put him somewhere near the top. Sure. [00:52:25] S3: Let's do that.
00:52:25 · Teddy Schleifer, Max Read
[00:52:25] S3: Let's do that. [00:52:25] S1: Another person I wanna talk about, it didn't come up before because he hasn't been a huge donor, sort of nationally across the midterm cycle, but Sergey Brin did pretty well for himself. [00:52:33] S3: Yeah. Sergey is not on the list we mentioned because all of his giving is at the state level. But Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, if if Reid is a veteran, you know, Sergey is a rookie. He spent over a $100,000,000 this cycle, on a California political effort called Building a Better California. Brin basically started this group to push back on the proposed wealth tax in California [00:52:59] S1: Mhmm. [00:52:59] S3: Which, at least as of this recording, seems like it's gonna fail. And that is in large part because Sergey and other wealthy people from tech spent $330,000,000 on a political effort to kind of cripple this thing. And it worked. I mean, the the the... Sergey, they were able to demolish this thing financially. Not only did they raised $30,333,000,000 dollars, but the pro side of the union pushing this billionaires tax in California basically raised bupkis. They they they were outspent tremendously, and it's a testament to money in politics. [00:53:34] S1: So these two guys, Sergey and Reid, we might put at the top of our list. [00:53:37] S3: Yeah. [00:53:38] S1: Partly because they're the only guys who got what they wanted out of the races last night. I wanna turn to the crypto people because, this is a whole grouping that you've put together [00:53:46] S3: Yeah.