Silicon Valley Tech investors used to claim they were backing companies "to make a world a better place”, and to some extent they were (fooling themselves into) believing that.
But now it seems like most prominent venture capital partners from a16z, Sequoia, Founders Fund, Craft Ventures ... are spending their days spouting very nationalistic bigoted pro-Trump ideology on X.
Are there any still, not entirely batshit crazy, VCs in the US?
And now … ex-Silicon Valley VC JD Vance becomes Trump’s running mate.
“Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. He served as a principal at Peter Thiel's firm, Mithril Capital, between 2016 and 2017.“
Please someone bring a camera when you're breaking the news to a16z's Marc Andreessen, who said he was forced to support Trump because Lina Khan was preventing his fund to get exits.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/trump-enforcers-affirm-lina-khans
Fascism for first time founders https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/ As usual I’ve found that techdirt is doing more to call out the fash in tech than most
The standards of compliance have gotten so low that a Sheikh bribing the president of the USA with a $2 billion deal negotiated through a Silicon Valley VC is not even news anymore.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chips-witkoff-world-liberty.html
“What’s happened to Silicon Valley? Why did the Ayn Rand–loving heroes of tech become Donald Trump’s bootlickers?”
“[Tech VCs and CEOs] may believe that submitting to Trump’s protection racket protects their shareholders. But tech giants are certainly capable of standing up for the long-term viability of their industry. And for democracy. So far they are doing the opposite. "
Silicon Valley Tech CEOs, who have long been claiming to champion free speech, have effectively been muzzled by this administration.
Caught between their fiduciary duty and Trump’s intimidations, none has the courage to speak up first.
This is almost a textbook case of a prisoner’s dilemma.
Extract from: https://omny.fm/shows/odd-lots/andrew-ross-sorkin-on-the-stock-market-crash-that-shattered-america
Alors que l'Europe se reprend en main et re-développe des capacités technologiques souveraines, il faut se rappeler de comment le renseignement américain et #InQTel ont sabotés, avec l'aide du groupe de private equity américain Texas Pacific Group, le géant français de la carte à puce Gemplus.
Méfiance donc quand des VC affiliés avec le #NerdReich cherchent à rentrer au capital des boîtes européennes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wMxldl3Alk
Great podcast episode with Christine Lagarde.
Europe has talent, which needs funding. The #CapitalMarketsUnion is urgent.
“Instead of having these massive savings travel across the Atlantic to be invested in the US and for US investors and venture capitalists to then come back to possibly invest in some selected projects which suits them. We should just indicate that there is a will and there is a way to invest in Europe.”
https://podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/the-economics-show/id1746352576?l=en-GB&i=1000742551132&r=692
I'm amazed that Lutnick doesn't see the irony when he goes on a podcast with VCs & talks about China dumping Chinese EV overproduction to kill Volkswagen.
The 🇺🇸 VC ecosystem has been doing the same thing with private money in Europe. American VC-backed companies with their deep pockets have been running services at loss in order to eliminate competition for a long time, knowing that because of the deeper capital markets in the US they can win at that game.
We need the #CapitalMarketsUnion now!
What the #NerdReich of Silicon Valley VCs (Thiel, Praxis, Chamath ... ) don't understand is that not everyone lives in a world where everything is transactional.
Greenlanders don't share their values. Greenlanders can't be bought.
📺Full Interview: https://www.viory.video/en/videos/a3110_18012026
MAGA: No More Forever Wars
Tech MAGA (Palantir, Anduril, Thiel, A16Z ... ) : This administration has reimagined munitions as consumables. We're no longer going to keep them on the shelf. In order for our revenue to go up, they are going to continously expend them, which means that we're going to have to replenish them.
Silicon Valley VCs are benefitting from these regular pointless strikes because it “causes a demand signal" for them to produce more ammunition.
https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1502871393?i=1000759805765&r=2147&t=2147
@fj I prob agree with this podcast (haven’t listened yet), but I wish it were also easier to immigrate to Europe (for me in particular, France).
I was able to move here, but because of its complexity I ended up only getting an education visa which (I didn’t know this at first) wouldn’t give me to right to work for non-French companies.
I would like to pay taxes to France for 2025, but I can’t (I’ll be paying in the US).
@fj
There's this thing though in the end when Christine Lagarde is talking about using russian assets to help Ukraine:
- We have to respect international law.
- What signal would it send?
This is just stupid imo. Russia doesn't give a shit about international law. It would send a signal that if you break international law - we would reciprocate.
Le conseiller IA du 🇻🇦 pape (oui, c'est une fonction) fait un diagnostic de l'hérésie de Peter Thiel et c'est honnêtement brilliant:
“Peter Thiel agit sur deux registres simultanés, révélateurs de la profondeur de son hérésie politique : d’un côté, il finance les forces centrifuges qui érodent l’État-nation ; de l’autre, il arme l’État pour instaurer un contrôle panoptique”
https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/03/14/thiel-heresie-benanti/
Les théories de Thiel concernant l’Antéchrist sont remplies d'incohérences.
Il a bien compris les mécanismes du bouc-émissaire des travaux de René Girard mais à la place de les redouter, Thiel les utilise comme arme.
Analyse brillante d’Antonio Spadaro:
https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/04/04/refutation-spadaro-thiel/
@fj Il y a bien longtemps, j'ai lu avec beaucoup d'intérêt La violence et le sacré, puis Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde, mais j'étais loin d'imaginer que Peter Thiel utilisait René Girard pour voir l'antéchrist dans la technologie.
Je me coucherai moins bête ce soir, mais pas plus rassuré.
@fj « le désir humain n’est ni autonome ni spontané, mais fondamentalement mimétique : nous désirons ce que les autres désirent, non pour la valeur intrinsèque de l’objet, mais parce que le désir d’autrui le désigne comme désirable (…)
Thiel a décelé [en Facebook] une « machine mimétique » parfaite : une plateforme conçue pour exploiter un besoin humain fondamental — observer les autres, les imiter, désirer ce qu’ils désirent. »
@fj look at this marvelous paragraph from NYT: «Mr. Thiel’s relationship with Mr. Trump has since soured while Mr. Vance’s ties to the former president have strengthened. At a conference in Aspen, Colo., last month, Mr. Thiel said he would vote for Mr. Trump only “if you hold a gun to my head.”»
They are only interested in having access to the WH through Vance, nothing else.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/technology/jd-vance-tech-silicon-valley.html
@rpaulo That quote is deceptive, or someone is really holding a gun to his head because he did also say he's voting for Trump.
“Peter Thiel said he’d vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden but he won’t provide money to the Republican presumptive nominee’s super PAC.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/27/peter-thiel-says-if-you-hold-a-gun-to-my-head-ill-vote-for-trump.html
@fj Wonder how long until Biden names Sarah Kendzior a special election campaign advisor.
Because there is nothing quite like an actual expert in authoritarian geronto-kleptocracies who forecasted Trump in 2013-2015 (view from flyover country) vs a wannabe expert who surged the hype post-fact (that’s how he got his VC position).
paBlO NATalinO
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Supership 79