Elon Musk's high-profile role on Donald Trump's transition team has led to the selection of Musk's friends, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, as collaborators. It is reported that there are.
For example, the name of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, especially co-founder Marc Andreessen, is mentioned repeatedly. He, along with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, was asked to work with Musk's advisory committee, the Department of Government Efficiency, which is looking at ways to overcome technical challenges in collecting data on federal programs. The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
They are among the few other Silicon Valley bigwigs who have been wiretapped.
Gracias is a co-founder of Valor Equity Partners, which has successfully backed Musk companies over the years, including SpaceX and Tesla, the latter of which he served on the board from 2007 to 2021. Mr. Lonsdale is a co-founder of venture capital firm 8VC, which actively supports defense technologies (such as Anduril) and other government technologies such as financial software provider OpenGov. Lonsdale worked for billionaire VC Peter Thiel and helped co-found Palantir. TechCrunch previously reported that Andreessen Horowitz has been a big SpaceX investor since around 2022, buying as many shares as he can, and Andreessen has been a vocal supporter of Musk.
Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy explained in a Wall Street Journal editorial last week that the DOGE committee hopes to recommend cuts to the program and the number of federal employees. They also expect to face legal backlash, they wrote. The group plans to launch a podcast in the near future, The Washington Post reported.
Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz is also said to be in the running to serve on the Trump administration's promised Cryptocurrency Advisory Council. It will be staffed by a large number of crypto industry executives who will help establish U.S. crypto policy, industry executives told Reuters last week. According to Reuters, a16z cryptocurrency policy director Brian Quintenz is already advising Trump's team.
Another VC being discussed as a member of the committee is Paradigm, an investment firm co-founded by former Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam. Paradigm specializes in cryptocurrency/blockchain investments. Coinbase, which is not a VC firm but funds its own corporate firm Coinbase Ventures, is also interested in the committee, people told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Politico reported last week that Thiel's protégé Michael Kratsios, who served as chief technology officer in the first Trump administration, has been selected to lead the Trump transition team in charge of technology policy. Kratsios is known for drafting President Trump's 2020 Executive Order Promoting Investment in AI. Prior to his government position, he worked at Teal Capital. However, Kratsios is not currently a VC. According to LinkedIn, he has been working at AI company Scale AI since 2021.
Lonsdale and a16z could not be reached for comment. He did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.