On Tuesday, Silicon Valley conservatives were hopeful that Donald Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, would bring a fellow “tech bro” to the White House for the first time
“We have a former technical vice president in the White House.” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund, which billionaire investor Peter Thiel owns, wrote on the social media platform X, “GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY.”
A Yale Law School graduate and venture capitalist in San Francisco, Vance has experienced a swift rise in American politics. He is the author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
At 39, he has only served two years as a representative of Ohio in the United States Senate.
The Republican National Convention formally nominated Trump and Vance as their ticket in the Nov. 5 election to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday.
Some investors who tend toward the right began re-circulating Vance’s old tweets and focused on more lenient regulations, including those related to cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.
Matt Murphy, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, observed, “He has a direct line to some important influencers as he’s evaluating or thinking through some of the policy around tech.” Murphy also noted the traditional gap between Washington and Silicon Valley.
Vance has employed his background to establish a connection between Trump associates and affluent Silicon Valley donors during the campaign, several of whom have contributed to Trump this election.
Although conservatives in the tech industry, such as Thiel, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and entrepreneur Elon Musk, have begun to increase their visibility, Republicans remain a minority in the predominantly left-leaning San Francisco Bay Area.
They are encouraged by the potential of technology but are dissatisfied with the extra restrictions that progressive politicians and employees have imposed on their businesses.
Thiel, who invested approximately $15 million in Vance’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2022 and the venture capital firm Narya that he established in 2019, has assisted Vance in riding that surge.
“Silicon Valley conservatives regard Vance as one of their own, despite their disagreements regarding certain policies.”
Despite his background, Vance has advocated for the dissolution of Google and argued that large technology companies wield excessive influence. These stances are in direct opposition to the views of conservatives, who are opposed to government regulation.
Tim Draper, a venture capitalist and crypto investor who supported former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, expressed optimism that Vance would be more of a “VC than a lawyer.”
“A good understanding of how freedom and startups drive growth in our economy is critical for the continued success of Silicon Valley, our nation’s ‘golden goose,'” Draper emphasized.
Draper interpreted Vance’s cryptocurrency investments as an indication that he “probably groks (intuitively understands) the economy of the future to some degree,” a term widely used in the technology industry. Grok is also the moniker of the ChatGPT challenger from Musk’s startup, xAI.
According to his federal disclosure from October 2023, Vance possessed over $100,000 in Bitcoin as of 2022.
The Trump-Vance campaign has yet to respond to a request for comment regarding Vance’s proposed tech policies, his ties to Silicon Valley, and whether or not he still possesses cryptocurrency.
At the convention in Milwaukee, Donald Jr., Trump’s son and adviser, responded to Reuters when asked whether the Trump-Vance ticket would attempt to dismantle Google. “I’ll let them discuss some of the platform’s intricacies… but I like his (Vance’s) understanding of tech.”
Vance introduced Donald Trump Jr. to entrepreneur and investor David Sacks. He assisted in the organization of a June fundraiser at Sacks’ San Francisco estate, which raised $12 million for the former president.
In his speech at the event, Sacks expressed gratitude to Vance, stating that “this all started with J.D. Vance calling and asking if we could host an event for President Trump.”
The former president utilized the June event to promote himself as a cryptocurrency advocate and to criticize Democrats’ efforts to regulate the industry.
