Marc Andreessen, co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms, said he has been a Democrat for most of his life, supporting and voting for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
But he says he's no longer allegiance to the Democratic Party. He plans to support and vote for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. His reasons for choosing Trump over President Joe Biden mainly boil down to one big issue: He believes Trump's policies are far more favorable to the technology, and especially the startup, ecosystem.
Andreessen explained his thoughts and how the two presidential candidates' policies compare to each other in the latest episode of “The Ben & Mark Show,” a podcast he co-hosts with a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz.
“I wish I didn't have to choose sides,” Horowitz said, acknowledging that his political choices would upset many of his friends and his mother. “We literally [believe] The future of our business, the future of our technology, and the future of America is at stake.”
Andreessen and Horowitz explained that technological power is one of the three pillars that allowed the United States to become the most successful country in the world over the past century, along with economic and military power. American superiority in these three areas helped the US peacefully defeat one of the biggest threats of the 20th century: the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union ended the Cold War because it could not keep up with the US technologically, the a16z co-founders said.
“Why is technology important? Because without the technology part of the triangle, the economic part and the military part don't happen,” Andreessen said.
They cited several reasons why they believe a Biden administration would stifle startups with excessive regulation and perhaps unnecessary taxation, while a Trump administration would help innovation thrive.
Among other things, the co-founders explained that they do not agree with current White House plans to “over-regulate” artificial intelligence.
“The restrictions we impose are [on] “Our own actions will put the United States at a disadvantage relative to the rest of the world,” Andreessen said.
They also discussed Trump's views on AI during a recent dinner with the former president: “He told us,[AI] “This is very scary, but we absolutely have to win, because if we don't win, China will win,” Horowitz said.
Andreessen further noted that, unlike the Biden administration, Trump's cryptocurrency regulation plans are “fully supportive of the entire sector.”
But Biden's proposed unrealized capital gains tax was the “final straw” that Andreessen said switched from supporting the current president to supporting Trump. A tax on unrealized capital gains could force startups to pay tax on their increased valuation. (Private company valuations are illiquid, but the U.S. government collects taxes in dollars.)
“If you're a venture, every year you lose a chunk of your portfolio. You go out of business,” Andreessen said. “That's just not how startups work.”
Andreessen has long been a vocal advocate of technology's importance to society. In October, he published “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” calling on technologists to ignore critics and pessimists and embrace technology as “the only source of lasting growth.” Andreessen is one of Silicon Valley's largest venture capitalists, with more than $42 billion in assets under management, according to PitchBook.