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
@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.
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