With Elon Musk taking part in such a outstanding function in Donald Trump's transition staff, Musk's cronies, lots of them Silicon Valley enterprise capitalists, are reportedly being tapped to assist.
For instance, the corporate VC Andreessen Horowitz and particularly the co-founder Marc Andreessen are repeatedly talked about. They, together with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, are reportedly being requested to assist with Musk's advisory panel, the Division of Authorities Effectivity, which is exploring methods to beat technical issues with information assortment on federal packages, the Washington Submit reported Sunday.
They’re amongst a handful of different wiretapped Silicon Valley tycoons.
Gracias is the co-founder of Valor Fairness Companions, which has backed Musk's firms effectively over time, together with SpaceX and Tesla (the latter of which he served on the board from 2007 to 2021). Lonsdale is a co-founder of VC agency 8VC and an lively supporter of protection applied sciences (comparable to Anduril) and different authorities applied sciences comparable to monetary software program supplier OpenGov. Lonsdale labored underneath billionaire VC Peter Thiel and helped co-found Palantir. A16z has been an enormous investor in SpaceX since round 2022 — and is shopping for extra shares as it will possibly, fromcrypto beforehand reported, and Andreessen has been a vocal supporter of Musk.
The DOGE committee hopes to advocate program cuts and cut back the variety of federal workers, Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy defined in a Wall Road Journal op-ed final week. Additionally they count on to face authorized backlash, they wrote. The group plans to launch a podcast within the close to future, WaPo studies.
In the meantime, Andreessen Horowitz can also be reportedly within the operating for a spot on the Trump administration's promised crypto advisory board. Will probably be staffed by plenty of executives from the crypto trade who’re attempting to assist the US implement crypto coverage, trade officers advised Reuters final week. Brian Quintenz, head of coverage for crypto a16z, has already suggested Trump's staff, based on Reuters.
One other VC being mentioned for a seat on this committee is Paradigm, an funding agency co-founded by Fred Ehrsam, a earlier co-founder of Coinbase. Paradigm focuses on crypto/blockchain investments. Coinbase, which isn’t a enterprise capital agency however funds its personal company agency Coinbase Ventures, can also be within the committee, sources advised Reuters.
In the meantime, former Thiel protégé Michael Kratsios, who served as chief know-how officer in the course of the first Trump administration, has reportedly been tapped to deal with know-how coverage for Trump's transition staff, Politico reported final week. Kratsios was identified for writing Trump's 2020 AI funding govt order. Previous to his authorities function, he labored for Thiel Capital. Nonetheless, Kratsios just isn’t at present a VC. In keeping with his LinkedIn, he has been working in AI at Scale AI since 2021.
A16z and Lonsdale couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Additionally they didn’t reply to a Washington Submit request for remark.
