Venture capital once exercised much of its political influence through lobbying and conventional campaign donations. Now some of its biggest players are spending heavily to shape primary contests before voters reach the general election.

Corporations had already contributed $517 million to super PACs and hybrid PACs seeking to influence the 2026 midterms, according to Public Citizen’s most recent tally, and we are not even at the general election yet. Crypto, AI, Big Tech and online betting accounted for 57 percent of that total. These fast-growing industries are now outspending categories of political money that once defined American campaigns. I had to read that number twice when I first saw it.One name in that pile surprised me less than it probably should have: Andreessen Horowitz. The Silicon Valley venture firm, together with personal political contributions from co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, accounted for $115.5 million, according to New York Times reporting cited by Public Citizen. There was a time when oil companies and defense contractors treated Washington like their playground. Now a venture capital firm, the kind of institution that raises money from pension funds and university endowments to bet on startups, has become a major force in American election spending.To understand how we got here, you actually have to go back before AI. Back to a Senate race in Ohio in 2022, and a guy named JD Vance.Before entering politics, Vance co-founded Narya Capital, which initially raised $93 million from investors including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Eric Schmidt and Scott Dorsey. When Vance decided to run for the Senate, Thiel did not just back him quietly. He contributed roughly $15 million to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC supporting Vance, one of the largest sums a single donor had committed to an outside group backing one Senate candidate. A venture financier funding the political rise of someone who had worked within his professional network, that is increasingly becoming the job description for parts of Silicon Valley. Vance was not an outlier. He was a pilot program.And he was not Thiel’s only bet. Thiel also contributed roughly $15 million to a super PAC supporting Blake Masters, his former........

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