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A fundraiser held in the heart of Silicon Valley raised $12 million for Donald Trump’s campaign as the mecca of tech innovation more openly embraces the former president’s return to the White House.
The fundraiser was held by venture capitalist and “PayPal mafia” member David Sacks at his residence in Pacific Heights on Thursday. It was co-hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, the founder of investment firm Social Capital and one of Sacks’ co-hosts on the All-in podcast.
Tickets for the event were pricy — $50,000 a pop to start, with some costing as much as $500,000, The San Francisco Standard reports. The event comes about a week after Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over reimbursements for a “hush money” payment that his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
The fundraiser drew a large crowd of notable names: Republican Senators Bill Hagerty and J.D. Vance, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, and cryptocurrency exchange Gemini’s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were in attendance. It also attracted dozens of Trump supporters to the streets surrounding Sacks’ home, as well as a smaller group of anti-Trump protesters.
The $12 million fundraising haul adds to the Trump campaign’s and allied groups’ war chest, which received a major boost after his conviction. According to the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., those groups raised more than $370 million last month.
The fundraiser also highlights a change of heart in Silicon Valley. Sacks, who has been a conservative for years, donated cash to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, while Palihapitiya has donated more than $1 million toward pro-Democratic groups in recent years.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of people who support Trump, but they don’t want to admit it,” Sacks said on the All-In podcast last week. “And I think that this event is going to break the ice on that. And maybe it’ll create a preference cascade, where all of a sudden it becomes acceptable to acknowledge the truth.”
Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, said he donated $300,000 to Trump and allied groups in response to the verdict. Maguire said he had voted for Clinton in 2016. Another Sequoia partner, billionaire venture capitalist Doug Leone, on Monday said he would back Trump. Leone, who had donated to Trump in 2020, pulled his support after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
And, of course, there’s Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO — once hailed as an icon by liberals — has become openly critical of President Joe Biden, and has reportedly discussed joining Trump’s potential White House team as an adviser. There are also members of Silicon Valley — including Palantir founder Peter Thiel — who have been staunch Republicans for years.