Tech poured $394.1m into US election as Musk and crypto giving boomed

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FEC filings offer only a glimpse of the money tech is pouring into Washington as it seeks to influence governmentSilicon Valley poured more than $394.1m into the US presidential election this year, according to a Guardian analysis, the bulk of it coming from an enormous donation of about $243m Elon Musk made to Donald Trump’s campaign.The analysis of new election data from the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows the increasingly heavy influence of the tech industry in US elections. Advocates of cryptocurrency were particularly active in this election as they fought to stave off regulation, pumping money into the presidential campaigns and key congressional races.$242.6m from Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) who has an estimated net worth of $350bn.$5.5m from Marc Andreessen, the billionaire founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z. Andreessen’s co-founder, Ben Horowitz, initially supported Trump but flipped to Harris.$5.1m from Jan Koum, the founder of WhatsApp who made the bulk of his fortune when Facebook acquired the messaging app in 2014 for $19bn.$51.1m from the Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who left the social media company in 2008 to start the workflow software company Asana.$17m from Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn.$11.7m from Chris Larsen, the billionaire chair of Ripple, a cryptocurrency company. Continue reading…

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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/07/campaign-spending-crypto-tech-influence

Author : Raphael Hernandes, Lauren Aratani and Will Craft, with graphics by Tural Ahmedzade

Publish date : 2024-12-07 10:00:22

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