Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale and all the other VCs are reportedly looking for new Trump committees
With Elon Musk playing such an important role in Donald Trump’s transition team, Musk’s friends, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are reportedly being recruited to help.
For example, the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and especially co-founder Marc Andreessen, is mentioned repeatedly. He, along with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, were reportedly asked to help with Musk’s advisory panel, the Department of Government Operations, which is exploring ways to overcome technical challenges in collecting data about government programs, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
They are among a handful of other Silicon Valley moguls being filmed.
Gracias is the founder of Valor Equity Partners, which has been instrumental in backing Musk’s companies over the years, including SpaceX and Tesla (the latter of which he was on the board of directors from 2007 to 2021). Lonsdale is the founder of VC firm 8VC, and backs defense technology (such as Anduril) and other government technologies, such as financial software provider OpenGov. Lonsdale worked under billionaire VC Peter Thiel and helped co-found Palantir. A16z has been a major investor in SpaceX since about 2022 — and is buying up as much stock as it can, TechCrunch previously reported, and Andreessen has been Musk’s backer.
The DOGE committee hopes to recommend cuts in programs and a reduction in the number of government employees, Musk and former president Vivek Ramaswamy explained to the editor of the Wall Street Journal last week. They also expect to face legal action, he wrote. In the near future, the group plans to launch a podcast, reports WaPo.
Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz is also said to be in the running for a position on the Trump administration’s crypto advisory council. It will have many employees from the crypto industry who want to help the US develop crypto policy, industry executives told Reuters last week. Brian Quintenz, head of a16z crypto policy, is already advising Trump’s team, Reuters reports.
Another VC being discussed for a spot on the committee is Paradigm, an investment firm founded by Fred Ehrsam, the former founder of Coinbase. Paradigm specializes in crypto/blockchain investments. Coinbase, which is not a VC firm but funds its subsidiary, Coinbase Ventures, is also interested in the committee, sources told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Thiel’s former student Michael Kratsios, who served as chief technology officer under the Trump administration, was reportedly tapped to handle the Trump team’s technology policy, Politico reported last week. Kratsios was known for authorizing Trump’s 2020 pro-AI investment executive order. Prior to his role in government, he worked for Thiel Capital. Kratsios, however, is not a VC yet. He has worked at AI company Scale AI since 2021, according to his LinkedIn.
A16z and Lonsdale were not immediately available for comment. They also did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
