Meet the New Guard of Finance—and Save $100 On Your First YearUnlock the List

Aug. 19, 2022 12:00 PM PDT

It's check-writing season for Reid Hoffman, and not just for his two venture capital firms, two special purpose acquisition corporations, two podcasts, six startup boards or any of the other extracurricular activities that keep him stupendously busy. (I counted one real job—at Greylock Partners—and 15 side hustles, which he confirmed.)

Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder and Democratic superdonor, has been giving prolifically to politicians on both sides of the aisle this election cycle. (A Federal Election Commission database lists no fewer than 190 campaign contributions by Hoffman in 2022.) When we spoke by video call last week, he was waiting to see if two Republicans he had supported with midterm cash, Liz Cheney and Lisa Murkowski, would make it out of their GOP primaries. Murkowski squeaked by; Cheney lost in a landslide.

Outside-the-box advocacy isn’t new for Hoffman: He wrote a check for Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign when he learned that non–French citizens could do so. But at the root of most of Hoffman’s political activity these days is an outright disdain for one person: Donald Trump, whom he terms “a Chernobyl…within the U.S. system.” Speaking from his home near Seattle, he told me he’d readily contribute to a Cheney campaign for president if she asked. “While I disagree with many of Liz Cheney’s ideas on where we should go as a society,” he said, “I recognize her as a modern American hero.”

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
Pro Weekly ai
Pro Weekly: OpenAI’s Other Model
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Bloomberg
Welcome back!OpenAI has been the talk of the tech world in recent months, following the release of the ChatGPT chatbot in November and GPT-4, the newest edition of its machine-learning model, earlier this month. Its pace of product releases is impressive, especially from a company that started as a nonprofit research organization. My colleague Jon detailed a key reason in an article...
Latest Briefs
 
Coinbase Hires Former Shopify Executive as Country Director
Circle’s USDC Outflows Exceed $10 Billion Since Crypto Bank Crisis
Virgin Orbit Lays Off 85% of Staff, Ceases Operations
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
From left, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Google Brain chief Jeff Dean. Photos by Getty, Bloomberg
Exclusive google ai
Alphabet’s Google and DeepMind Pause Grudges, Join Forces to Chase OpenAI
OpenAI’s success in overtaking Google with an artificial intelligence–powered chatbot has achieved what seemed impossible in the past: It has forced the two AI research teams within Google’s parent, Alphabet, to overcome years of intense rivalry to work together.
Art by Clark Miller.
Opinion startups
Don’t Build the Wrong Kind of AI Business
At a catch-up coffee a few weeks ago, a founder friend asked me, “What AI thing should we build?” It was the third time that week a founder had asked me the same question.
Block chairman and co founder Jack Dorsey. Photo by Getty
markets
Fintech’s Big Wakeup Call
Fintechs were supposed to transform banking by making it dead simple for users to open savings accounts or pay their bills.
Art by Clark Miller.
Market Research e-commerce culture
The Skin-Tech Devices Helping Execs Beautify in a Hurry
I’m always 29 at heart,” said Liyia Wu, CEO of ShopShops, a livestream shopping app for fashion, beauty and lifestyle products.
Art by Clark Miller.
Caffeinated Capitalists venture capital
Venture Capital’s 25 Favorite Cafes
Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto. Buck’s of Woodside. The Creamery in SoMa (RIP). Silicon Valley’s coffee shops have undoubtedly seen more dealmaking than any one fancy office building or members’ club.
Art by Clark Miller
Surreal Estate real estate
Silicon Valley’s Realtors, Like Its Bankers, Are Having a Tough Month
In early March, Ken DeLeon, founder of DeLeon Realty, a Silicon Valley–based brokerage that sold more than $1 billion in homes in 2021, called one of his venture capitalist clients to discuss the purchase of a $20 million–plus megamansion.