a16z, the biggest gold behind the us midterm election. lord

Original by Theodore Schleiffer, The New York Times

Original: Luffy, Forsight News

The biggest gold owners of this mid-term election in the United States are neither Elon Mask, George Soros, nor any other billionaire with the greatest financial resources in politics。

The real top of the list is a wind project: Andressen Horowitz。

Top donors for the midterm election, data source: United States Federal Electoral Commission, New York Times

The analysis in The New York Times shows that the Silicon Valley Throw, together with its founding partners, Mark Anderson and Ben Holowitz, have now contributed more than $115 million in political donations for election-related activities in the medium term, making it the largest known in the current electoral cycle。

a16z political involvement is not new, and the two founders themselves are a billion senior political donors. however, the current round of donations is well above the 2024 electoral cycle of some $63 million. this top-level investment agency is increasing its political input with unprecedented intensity in an attempt to push policy direction and fit its business interests。

After the last election, a16z established a long-term political engagement. As is customary, the day after the end of the general election (two more years before the next major election) would not have been the time for substantial contributions. However, on November 6, 2024, a16z injected over $23 million into the two core super-political action committees in the encryption industry, sending clear signals: Its political configuration is a long-term strategy, not a stopgap one。

in response to a request for media interviews, a16z refused to comment and did not schedule interviews with the two founders。

A few days later, Andersen, in a roundup of elections, stated, "I have come to the conclusion that we must take political participation as a permanent mission. "There are times when things are going well and there are times when you have to fight hard. But we must participate in depth throughout the journey, no matter what happens."

the massive political contributions made by wind-in institutions also reflect a major shift in the united states political landscape. in the middle of the current round, the top donor base has shifted from an individual billionaire to a 16z-type enterprise. critics believe that the institution ' s huge financial resources are or will be used against the electoral process for its own private business gain。

Since the general elections in 2024, a16z has invested $47.5 million in the encryption super-political action committee network, Fairshake. Its layout has also long gone out of the encryption track: leading a super-political action committee focused on supporting smart parliamentarians for their loved ones, using the Fairshake model, with an investment of $50 million. Fairshake and Leating the Future have both adopted a two-party policy and funded Republican and Democratic candidates。

In addition, a16z and the two founders together donated $12 million to the Grand Political Action Committee (MAGA Inc.) under the banner of Trump, of which $6 million was contributed in March alone. In the same month, the Trust Fund associated with Anderson also contributed nearly $900,000 to the Republican National Committee。

A series of political inputs also allowed Mark Anderson to establish a close human connection with the Trump administration。

the scale of the public political donations of anderson and holowitz in the current round surged: a16z and the founders' political donations rose sharply from $2 million in 2022 to $115.5 million in 2026; the funds went mainly to artificial intelligence issues, republican camps and encryption。

Source: United States Federal Electoral Commission, New York Times

before trump began his second term last year, andersen disclosed that he had spent half his time at the sea lake estate to assist the trump team in the transition to power. he also worked as an informal consultant to advise the ministry of government efficiency, led by mask. two a16z ex-partners have entered the government as senior officials, one of whom is responsible for the supervision of matters related to artificial intelligence。

In March this year, 54-year-old Anderson was elected to the top of the White House Science and Technology Advisory Committee; recently, he was invited to a visit to the United States by King Charles III of the United Kingdom and a private club dinner organized by Trump at the White House Rose Garden。

According to the regulatory documentation, the bulk of the contributions from Anderson and Holowitz come from a16z institution, which is fully owned by both persons. The $115.5 million in the current electoral cycle has not yet included the tens of millions of dollars that the agency has recently invested in the emerging non-profit advocacy of artificial intelligence, which does not require public donations。

a16z was established in 2009 as one of the most prominent investment institutions in Silicon Valley. It builds on the Hollywood Artist Broker model to incubate start-ups, recruit radical, self-inflicted, early bets on the encrypted currency exchange Coinbase, social platform Instagram, and lays a reputation for industry。

The political positions of both of the founders are quite telling. In the 1990s, Anderson was a core member of the former US Vice President Gore's Science and Technology Think Tank and a leading fundraiser for the Democrats, thanks to the early browser Mosaic, who was young and rich。

After many years, his political position gradually turned to the right. He himself revealed that, after the 2016 Trump victory, he had deliberately dropped out of the political arena and started a political awareness of "self-province" and re-engineered all kinds of ideological extremes。

According to those familiar with its private social dynamics, Anderson is now active in a variety of private communities and often has discussions with conservative activists。

in the current year, 59-year-old holowitz, father of a prominent conservative opinion instigator, david holowitz. however, according to sources, horowitz himself made less public political statements, and participation in the superpolitical action council was relatively limited. a16z publicly endorsed trump in the summer of 2024, and in october of the same year horowitz provided financial support to the democratic party presidential candidate harris for personal relations。

Andersen and Holowitz call themselves "single-issue voters": voting and donating money is only about whether or not it's good for technology to start a business. According to the source, they were determined to remain deeply engaged in politics as a result of the repeated confrontations in the early years with the media and the Biden Government in terms of science and technology policy。

Anderson told his friends a story. About 10 years ago, he had a dispute with David Remnick, editor-in-chief of the magazine, at the head office of the New Yorker parent company, Cortenas. The team accused the technocrats of being out of touch and out of touch, while Anderson, after visiting each other’s luxurious office and bathing environment, believed that it was the media elite who was truly out of step。

Before the 2024 general election, Chris Lehane, a senior political player in Silicon Valley, who also served as Director of Coinbase, led the formation of Fairshake. Andersen and Holowitz argued that the Biden government was too tough on the a16z retrenchment of the encryption industry, and that the encryption circle political representative SBF had been convicted of fraud and that the industry urgently needed to open up a whole new political path。

As a result, a 16z United Coinbase, Ripple and other encryption giants became the Fairshake core funder, and the agency contributed $47 million to the organization during the 2024 election cycle. Despite the fact that most of Washington’s pro-encoded policies today originate from Fairshanke, the political landscape is still seen as a successful attempt by industry。

In the spring of 2025, Lehane, who is now in the hands of OpenAI, again took the lead in joining a16z, technologists and political executives, planning to re-engineer the political fund-raising strategy of the encryption industry into the area of artificial intelligence, with early layout and increased input。

In August 2025, a16z made a contribution to the Artificial Intelligence Political Action Committee $25 million and an additional $25 million in February 2026. According to the source, the agency has not yet decided whether to continue making additional contributions。

The political investment of $115.5 million is modest compared to the hundreds of billion assets managed by a16z. None of the other headwinds in Silicon Valley, such as Redwood Capital and Founders Fund, have taken a similar political stance。

according to the new york times, since the 2024 general election, open federal donations were second only to a16z, ranging from soros associated agencies (approximately us$ 103 million) to mask (us$ 85 million)。

a16z has also been caught up in controversy and opposition as a result of the massive political engagement。

At the internal level, John O'Farrell, an early partner in the institution, resigned from the position of part-time adviser in May last year because of political differences. He publicly criticized Fairshake and the two Political Action Committees, as well as his refusal to comment further on the "provocate to the technocratic community of the current government, including many former colleagues and partners"。

On the external level, the progressive camp strongly criticized a16z. Last year, several Democrat parliamentarians publicly criticized the joint fund-raising campaign by Senator Ruben Gallego of the Arizona Democrats and Anderson。

a16z The action of the Committee for Political Action for Artificial Intelligence The opposing super-political action committee, based on the idea of artificial intelligence security, was created to influence the political capital of a16z and its allies. The group was even called "z16a" and deliberately reversed a16z shorts。

New York Democratic State Senator Alex Bores is running for Congress, endorsed by Public First. “The logic of the vote is to seek rapid scale, but not to use it to buy democracy.”

Some Republicans are equally dissatisfied with the political stakes of a16z. In private, they are dissatisfied with Fairshake and Leating the Future’s insistence on bipartisan neutrality, arguing that the policy of artificial intelligence and encryption is more friendly for the Republicans, and that the relevant Political Action Committees should be fully on board。

Anderson and Holowitz have indicated to allies that they have limited decision-making power in the two main Political Action Committees and that they rarely have direct access to their management。

a16z Political strategy and Washington lobby layout, coordinated by Collin McCune, former Assistant to Congress and Republican. He followed the developments of the two Political Action Committees in real time and updated Anderson on policy and political developments。

But that doesn't mean Anderson doesn't know the political rules. In 2000, when he was only 29 years old, he said, "If you think that political donations are now large, you have never seen the true measure."