(Bloomberg) — On election night at Mar-a-Lago, once and future President Donald Trump milled around a gala with supporters who included Elon Musk, and a handful of loyalists from normally deep-Blue Silicon Valley. Palantir Technologies Inc. adviser Jacob Helberg, who attended, described the mood as “electric.”
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“People are hopeful for the future. There’s a sense that it’s morning in America again,” he told Bloomberg in a phone interview from Florida on Wednesday. “There’s so much important work to be done ahead of us right now.”
Venture capitalists and technologists who bet early on Trump’s campaign are celebrating, and imagining a Republican presidency that could benefit them in a number of ways. The new administration could provide clearer and more favorable cryptocurrency regulations, skip tax increases on capital gains and take a lighter touch approach to antitrust — a top VC priority that would allow for more startup acquisitions and investor payouts.
Tech leaders also have ideas about who should staff the incoming Trump Administration. In a TV interview Friday, investor Joe Lonsdale said that while he would not join, “I have a lot of friends going in full-time.” Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey, a supporter of Trump since before he officially announced his candidacy the first time around, told Bloomberg Television Thursday that he’s “in touch” with the transition team charged with selecting people to fulfill positions including the next Secretary of Defense.
Luckey declined to discuss whether Trump mega donor Musk or others were leading candidates, but added, “There’s not a single name I’m unhappy with.”
“Printing money”
Silicon Valley once kept Washington at arm’s length, but this election the industry made a series of multimillion-dollar donations and a litany of endorsements to both presidential campaigns. The surge of GOP support and contributions set records in the largely left-leaning tech industry, splintering once-clubby relationships. Meanwhile, many VCs reasoned that Trump would be good for startups, even some who didn’t explicitly endorse him.
“Absolutely I’m going to be printing money in a Trump administration,” said venture investor Jason Calacanis, co-host of All-In, a weekly podcast, last month. “It is going to be obscene how many M&A deals and IPOs are going to occur.” Crypto industry investors in particular are celebrating the election results. Tatiana Koffman, general partner at Moonwalker Capital, said that if Trump lost, “we were bracing ourselves for a major correction.” Now, she predicts, “a lot of new capital” will flow into funds and startups.