Prominent investor Marc Andreessen said he was “very scared” after meeting with government officials about the future of technology last May, calling the meeting “absolutely frightening.” Those meetings played a key role in why he supported Trump, he said on journalist Bari Weiss' podcast this week.
His biggest fear was what some had said about the government's role in AI, and that his younger staff were “radicalized” and “bleeding” so that their policy ideas would confuse him and Silicon Valley. It was something he described as “damaging” profits.
He walked away believing that the government supported controlling AI until it became a market maker, allowing only a few companies that cooperated with the government to prosper. He felt they discouraged investment in AI. “In fact, they flatly told us, 'Don't do anything like an AI startup, don't fund an AI startup,'” he says.
Naturally, we do not know how other people who were present at the meeting will recall such discussions, or even with whom he met. But it's understandable why such a thought would be particularly frightening to Andreessen. His company has backed AI startups such as Elon Musk's xAI, Mistral AI, and Character.AI.
It is worth noting that long before these meetings, in June 2023, Andreessen published an AI manifesto called “Why AI will save the world,” in which he warned against AI regulation. It is. So this is an area he's been thinking about for a while.
Publicly, the administration has taken less drastic AI-related steps than Andreessen recalled. In October 2023, President Joe Biden issued an executive order containing a series of voluntary commitments for AI companies to follow. This included requiring companies to share safety test results with the government and asking Congress to assess how AI companies collect data.
The order received mixed reviews from Silicon Valley at the time. OpenAI's Sam Altman tweeted that while there were “some great parts” to the effort, “it's important not to slow down innovation by small businesses and research teams.”
The incoming administration has so far indicated plans to play particularly well with AI startups. Earlier this month, Trump declared that investor VC David Sachs would be the czar of AI and cryptocurrencies, and both Altman and Perplexity later confirmed they would donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. “President Trump will lead our country into the AI era, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman said in a statement to Bloomberg News.
Andreessen himself has spent about half his time at Mar-a-Lago since the election. He confirmed with Weiss speculation that he was involved in Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, describing himself as an “unpaid volunteer.” He also said that at Mar-a-Lago, he is “part of the interview process for incoming employees.”
Mr. Andreessen said that President Trump told him, “I don't know much about technology, but I don't need to, because you guys know a lot about technology.'' He said he is doing so. You should start a technology company. American tech companies should win. ”