The biggest donor in the midterm elections is not Elon Musk, George Soros, or any of the other billionaires who are often assumed to have the fattest wallets in politics.
It’s a venture capital firm: Andreessen Horowitz.
The Silicon Valley firm, along with its big-name partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, has so far spent more than $115 million in disclosed federal contributions to midterm election efforts, according to a New York Times analysis. That makes it the biggest known spender this campaign cycle.
Andreessen Horowitz is no stranger to politics. Its founders are billionaires and experienced donors. But the amount of zeros on her checks even exceeded the $63 million or so she and her eponymous founders spent in the 2024 cycle, part of the investment business’s stunning effort to bend politics to its will.
His unusual role in this election cycle became apparent immediately after the last one. The day after Election Day—when there are no major elections for the next two years—isn’t usually a time for eight-figure donations. But on November 6, 2024, Andreessen Horowitz officially pumped more than $23 million to the cryptocurrency industry’s major super PACs, underscoring that her political commitment was long-term and not a passing interest.
Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment and did not make Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Horowitz available for interviews.
“My conclusion is that it has to be an ongoing role that we play,” Mr. Andreessen said in an election recap podcast recorded a few days later. “There will be some phases of the moon where the tides are on our side. And there will be phases where we really have to fight. But we have to stay involved every step of the way.”
Venture firm spending is part of the shift. This midterm, the biggest donors are no longer individual billionaires, but corporations like Andreessen Horowitz, which critics say could sway the election to advance a financial interest.
Andreessen Horowitz has already put $47.5 million into the Fairshake network’s crypto super PAC since Election Day 2024. And the firm’s interests have expanded beyond cryptocurrencies. She helped found and gave $50 million to Leading the Future, a super PAC focused on electing lawmakers for artificial intelligence, modeled after Fairshake. Fairshake and Leading the Future support both Republicans and Democrats.
Andreessen Horowitz and her co-founders also gave a combined $12 million to MAGA Inc., President Trump’s super PAC, including $6 million in March. A trust associated with Mr. Andreessen donated nearly $900,000 to the Republican National Committee that same month.
All of this has helped Mr. Andreessen, in particular, cultivate a close relationship with the Trump administration.
Before Mr. Trump took on his second term last year, Mr. Andreessen spent “half” of his time at Mar-a-Lago helping with the transition. he said. The venture capitalist also informally advised Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. And two former Andreessen Horowitz partners have taken senior government jobs, including one working on AI regulation.
In March, Mr. Andreessen, 54, was named a member of the White House’s elite technical council. He was recently invited to a state dinner hosted for Britain’s King Charles and a White House dinner at Mr. Trump’s so-called Rose Garden Club, where the lawn of the rose garden was paved.
Technically, Mr. Andreessen’s and Mr. Horowitz’s donations come largely from their firm, which they own, according to regulatory filings. The roughly $115 million Andreessen Horowitz has spent this election cycle does not include millions the firm recently poured into a new AI nonprofit it helped launch, the American Innovators Network, which does not have to disclose donations.
The company was founded in 2009 and is among the most respected investment entities in Silicon Valley. Modeled after Hollywood talent agencies, it invested in start-ups with aggressive hiring and a knack for self-promotion. Early investments in crypto exchange Coinbase and photo-sharing app Instagram helped build its reputation.
Its co-founders have a colorful history in politics. After gaining fame and fortune in the 1990s as the prodigy founder of Mosaic, one of the earliest Internet browsers, Mr. Andreessen became a key member of Vice President Al Gore’s “Gore Tech” brain trust and a driving force behind Democratic fund-raisers.
It has drifted to the right over the years. After Mr. Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Andreessen “deliberately withdrew from political engagement and fundraising.” he said. He took a “spiritual walk” through the political system, he said on the podcast where he tried to “re-read everything from scratch” focusing on ideological extremes.
Mr. Andreessen is known for being hyperactive in private group chats, where he now regularly meets with conservative activists about the news of the day, people familiar with his messages said.
Mr. Horowitz, 59, is the son of conservative lobbyist David Horowitz, but is less politically outspoken and less involved with the firm’s super PAC, a person close to the firm said. The firm endorsed Mr. Trump in the summer of 2024, but that October, Mr. Horowitz also financially supported Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, based on his friendship with her.
Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Horowitz said they are “single-issue voters” who vote purely on what’s good for tech startups. They were catalyzed after run-ins with the media and with Biden administration officials over technology policy, people who spoke to them about the policy said.
Mr. Andreessen told friends the story of a confrontation he had about a decade ago with David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, at the headquarters of Condé Nast, which owns the magazine. Mr. Remnick’s team argued that the tech elite were out of touch, said a person who heard Mr. Andreessen’s version of the story, but when the investor saw how well-appointed the Condé Nast offices and bathrooms were, he concluded that it was the media elite who were out of touch.
Before the 2024 election, Chris Lehane, a prominent Silicon Valley political operative who is on Coinbase’s board with Mr. Andreessen, began organizing what became Fairshake. Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Horowitz said the Biden administration was too hostile to cryptocurrencies, where Andreessen Horowitz has many investments. They wanted to chart a new political path for crypto after Sam Bankman-Fried, a crypto entrepreneur who was a political leader in the industry, was convicted of fraud.
So Andreessen Horowitz and crypto companies like Coinbase and Ripple have agreed to become major donors to Fairshake; the venture firm sent $47 million to Fairshake this election cycle. The effort was seen as a success, although much of today’s pro-crypto politics in Washington comes from Mr. Trump, whom Fairshake did not support.
In the spring of 2025, Mr. Lehane, now chief executive of OpenAI, was part of a group that consulted with Andreessen Horowitz, tech donors and political figures to replicate the same campaign finance strategy, but started earlier with the AI industry.
Andreessen Horowitz, which has extensive investments in artificial intelligence, was all in on the action. The firm sent $25 million to Leading the Future in August and another $25 million in February. She has not decided on further donations to any group, people close to the company said.
Andreessen Horowitz’s roughly $115 million in political donations pales in comparison to the $100 billion in assets he manages. Yet its venture capital competitors, such as Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund, have done no such thing.
In the aggregate, the next largest disclosed federal donors since the 2024 election are entities tied to Mr. Soros, with about $103 million, and Mr. Musk, with $85 million, according to an analysis by The Times.
Andreessen Horowitz’s political stance led to some backlash.
Internally one of the companies oldest partnersJohn O’Farrell resigned from his role as a part-time adviser last May due to political disagreements, according to a person who spoke to him. He criticized Leading the Future and Fairshake, along with what he called “zealous tech operatives in this regime, including some of my former VC friends and partners.” He declined to comment.
Outside the company, progressives attacked Andreessen Horowitz. Last year some Democrats admonished Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, for organizing the fundraiser with Mr. Andreessen.
Andreessen Horowitz’s support of Leading the Future specifically attracted attention. A rival super PAC focused on AI security, Public First, was formed in response to spending by Andreessen Horowitz and its allies, so much so that some organizers joked about naming Public First “z16a,” an inversion of the moniker commonly used for Andreessen Horowitz, “a16z.”
Alex Bores, a Democratic state legislator running for Congress in New York who was endorsed by Public First, said he relished the attacks he faced from Leading the Future.
“Venture capital is about getting to scale as quickly as possible, but I don’t think you should apply that to buying our democracy,” Mr. Bores said.
Some Republicans aren’t thrilled with Andreessen Horowitz’s political bets either. They are privately frustrated that Fairshake and Leading the Future insist on bipartisanship and believe the PACs should align with the Republican Party given the party’s generally friendlier stance on AI and cryptocurrencies.
Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Horowitz told allies that they had limited decision-making power at the PAC. They rarely communicate directly with PAC leadership, people familiar with the dynamics said.
Andreessen Horowitz’s political strategy and lobbying in Washington is run by Collin McCune, a Republican and former Capitol Hill aide. He is regularly informed of the movements of the two super PACs and keeps Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Horowitz updated on developments.
That’s not to say Mr. Andreessen doesn’t know how the game is played.
“If you think there’s a lot of money in politics now,” he said as a 29-year-old in 2000, “you haven’t seen anything yet.”
