Battle of the tech titans: Silicon Valley is divided over Harris vs. Trump

Aaron Levie, a Kamala Harris supporter and CEO of cloud computing company Box, said investor David Sacks must be high on cough syrup for supporting Trump.

Green technology investors who admired Musk call him a traitor to the cause because he is taking Trump's side.

A public spat of extraordinary proportions is brewing in Silicon Valley, as some of the biggest names in technology lash out at former friends and colleagues in the run-up to the presidential election.

This kind of infighting has been rare in previous presidential elections, as the tech industry historically tends to lean left. In this election, a small and influential group of top politicians – including Musk – have opened their wallets to support Trump and have become increasingly vocal in their support for switching parties, prompting backlash from others who have previously remained tight-lipped about their political leanings.

The political divide is putting a strain on business relationships and testing old friendships.

“There is a very tense situation in Silicon Valley right now because you have two opposing camps of people doing business with each other,” said Sam Singer, a public relations expert who has managed campaigns for Democratic politicians. “It's an unusual situation,” he added.

The Democrats' efforts were boosted when Harris – a native of the San Francisco Bay Area – became a presidential candidate. The vice president attended a fundraiser in San Francisco a few weeks ago, co-hosted by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and raised more than $13 million.

Harris's supporters in the technology sector say her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention included an unexpected bonus.

She talked about providing opportunities and capital not only to small business owners, but also to founders and entrepreneurs. She also talked about the importance of innovation and the need to lead in areas like artificial intelligence. Her supporters interpreted this to mean that she would support technology-friendly policies.

Trump-supporting industry executives reacted skeptically on social media, with some attempting to play up Trump's support for independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.

“Dream team,” Sacks tweeted with a picture of the two men shaking hands.

“One of those dreams when you took NyQuil,” Box CEO Levie replied.

“You fainted because a candidate who never received a single vote and would not give an interview read the word 'founder' from the teleprompter. Sit down,” Sacks replied.

Trump's tech supporters fear Harris will raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations and impose regulatory bottlenecks on emerging industries like crypto. They also say Trump will end the tightened scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions put in place under President Biden, said Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who has represented Trump and is the Republican chair for California.

“We are seeing tensions among Silicon Valley billionaires because in the first election cycle that I can remember, some of them are leaving the herd and thinking and acting for themselves,” she said.

Changing relationships

In a LinkedIn post in August, climate technology investor Josh Felser vehemently criticized a Trump-supporting founder he supported.

“I wonder how I will feel if I find out that more friends or colleagues are joining the Trump clique,” he said. “Our relationships will probably be changed forever and I suspect history will not be kind to them,” he added.

Several female technology workers have formed groups such as Tech4Kamala, VCs for Kamala and Founders for Kamala to mobilize support for Harris.

“We are experiencing unprecedented polarization,” said Edda Collins Coleman, co-founder of Tech4Kamala.

A VCs for Kamala survey of venture capitalists released last week found that most believe the loud voices of some billionaires supporting Trump do not reflect the opinion of the tech industry. The 225 people who took the survey said their views broadly aligned with Harris's and that Washington should make it easier for tech workers to obtain visas, among other things.

Tensions had been simmering for a long time. In mid-August, Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, attacked former Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz, who partly finances the news site The San Francisco Standard. The two men's firms have invested in some of the same companies.

Horowitz, a Democratic donor who later supported Trump, accused Moritz of commissioning an article questioning why he and his wife switched sides. Moritz has donated to Democratic causes before.

“Sir Michael Moritz is now running his fake disinformation 'newspaper' to fabricate slanderous articles about his business rival, me,” Horowitz wrote on X. “And he has chosen to attack my wife.”

The article detailed the couple's political donations and called their switch from Democrats to Republicans a mystery. The news outlet denied any involvement by Moritz. Moritz did not respond to a request for comment.

“We have all gone too far”

Some founders and investors who work in the green energy space and were fans of Musk are upset that he did not hit back after Trump dismissed environmental concerns in a long conversation with the Tesla boss on his social media platform X.

In July, former friends Hoffman and Peter Thiel argued about their political views at the highly publicized Sun Valley conference.

Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has donated more than $10 million this election to support the presidential candidacies of Biden and Harris. Thiel has publicly stated that he would vote for Trump and has financially supported JD Vance's Senate campaign.

Hoffman and Thiel worked together at PayPal – alongside Musk and Sacks. Because of Thiel's political views, the billionaires no longer speak to each other, Hoffman said at the conference.

On Friday, Hoffman was a guest on the All In podcast, hosted by Sacks and others, where some Trump supporters from Silicon Valley shared their views. The conversation was heated but cordial.

Top donors on both sides include leaders in the technology industry. Harris' campaign committee – which was transferred to her name after Biden's exit – raised about $204 million in July, while Trump's campaign committee brought in $47.5 million.

San Francisco-based startup founder Waseem Daher said it was the first time he had donated to a presidential candidate.

“This time it felt different,” he said. “The threat to American democracy feels real.”

Daher helped raise $80,000 for Harris and has pledged to match additional donations up to $1 million.

Garry Tan, head of startup accelerator Y Combinator, is planning another fundraiser for Harris. Jacob Helberg, an adviser to Palantir Technologies, and others are planning a fundraiser for Vance in September.

Some technology executives want to put an end to the public bickering.

Mark Pincus, co-founder of video game company Zynga, said he will not support either candidate in this election. Pincus has donated to Democratic causes before.

“We are so convinced that our side is right that we morally condemn the other side,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “We have all gone too far.”