Spectre of Trump loosens tongues, if not purse strings, in Silicon Valley

The prospect of Donald Trump being elated as President is pushing the tech community to move beyond its traditional role as donors to that of agitators and activists

After years of scorning the political process, Silicon Valley has leapt into the fray. The prospect of a President Donald J Trump is pushing the tech community to move beyond its traditional role as donors and to embrace a new existence as agitators and activists.

A distinguished venture capital firm emblazoned on its corporate home page an earthy anti-Trump epithet. One prominent tech chieftain says the consequences of Trump's election would "range between disastrous and terrible." Another compares him to a dictator. And nearly 150 tech leaders signed an open letter decrying Trump and his campaign of "anger" and "bigotry." Not quite all the action is anti-Trump. Peter Thiel, a founder of PayPal and Palantir who was the first outside investor in Facebook, spoke at the Republican convention in July. The New York Times reported on Saturday that Thiel is giving $1.25 million to support Trump's candidacy even as other supporters flee. (He also recently gave $1 million to a "super PAC" that supports Senator Rob Portman, the Republican freshman running for re-election in Ohio.)

Getting involved in politics used to be seen as clashing with Silicon Valley's value system: You transform the world by making problems obsolete, not solving them through Washington. Nor did entrepreneurs want to alienate whatever segment of customers did not agree with them politically. "We're a bunch of nerds not used to having a lot of limelight," said Dave McClure, an investor who runs a tech incubator called 500 Start-ups. "But to quote Spider-Man, 'With great power comes great responsibility.'" McClure grew worried after the Republican and Democratic conventions as Trump began to catch up to Hillary Clinton in the polls. He wanted Silicon Valley to do more, and so late last month he announced Nerdz4Hillary, an informal fund-raising effort.

An initial group of donors pledged $50,000; the goal was to ask the "nerdz" for small donations to match that sum. They have not come through yet. "We're kind of optimistic we'll get the other $50,000 in a few weeks," McClure said. That relatively slow pace reflects Silicon Valley's shifting position: Even as it becomes increasingly free with its opinions, it has been less free with its checkbook. The most recent data, from late August, shows Clinton taking in $7.7 million from the tech community, according to Crowdpac, a start-up that tracks donations. By that point in 2012, Crowdpac says, President Obama had raised $21 million from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of the business networking site LinkedIn, offers a snapshot of Silicon Valley's evolving approach to politics.

Hoffman was a top Obama donor, giving $1 million to the Priorities USA political action committee, something several of his peers did as well. Last month, Hoffman garnered worldwide publicity for saying he would donate up to $5 million to veterans' groups if Trump released his taxes, a remote possibility that never came to pass. He has castigated Trump in interviews, saying he was speaking for those who were afraid.

Hoffman's outright donations, however, have been smaller this election cycle. In May, he gave $400,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund. Asked if there was more recent giving that had not shown up in federal election records, Hoffman cryptically responded in an email, "Looking at some PACs, etc." He declined several opportunities to elaborate. Even as Priorities USA has raised $133 million this election cycle, far exceeding its total in 2012, its tech contributions have dwindled. The only familiar tech name this time around is John Doerr of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who gave $500,000. The AOL co-founder Steve Case said his September endorsement of Clinton, via an op-ed in The Washington Post, was the first time he ever publicly declared for a candidate.

©2016 The New York Times News Service