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Marc Andreessen, one of many world’s strongest enterprise capitalists, is taking part in a central position in recruiting for Elon Musk’s US authorities cost-cutting unit, in an indication of the deepening ties between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
The billionaire co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz helps interview and establish candidates for the Division for Authorities Effectivity (Doge), a brand new advisory physique created by the president-elect and co-chaired by Musk, in keeping with two individuals with information of the expertise search.
Whereas having no formal position at Doge, Andreessen is suggesting potential candidates and introducing his personal community because the division begins to rent workers, one of many individuals mentioned.
Andreessen Horowitz declined to remark. Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Andreessen, who co-founded early net browser Netscape, already has shut ties to the Tesla chief govt, having invested a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in his start-ups together with xAI and SpaceX, whereas additionally backing Musk’s $44bn takeover of X.
Musk, one in all Trump’s closest advisers, has promised to chop $2tn from the US finances along with Doge co-head Vivek Ramaswamy, a former rival for the Republican nomination for president.
In mid-November, the Doge account on X inspired any potential candidates to ship of their CVs, posting: “We want tremendous high-IQ small-government revolutionaries keen to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
Andreessen is concentrated on bringing in higher-level candidates moderately than assessing the pile of résumés despatched in by hopefuls, one individual mentioned.
Andreessen and his co-founder Ben Horowitz got here out in help of Trump in July, a transfer that shocked Silicon Valley and reversed years of help for Democratic candidates.
Horowitz later pledged help to Trump’s rival Kamala Harris, however Andreessen doubled down on his backing of the president-elect and has emerged as an necessary affect. “He’s spending loads of time over at Mar-a-Lago,” mentioned an individual with information of the matter in a reference to Trump’s Florida property.
In X posts and interviews, Andreessen has railed in opposition to some synthetic intelligence firms for being too “woke”, and accused social media teams corresponding to Google’s YouTube of “censoring” American voices up to now. These assaults echo related refrains from Musk over latest months.
Nevertheless, Andreessen additionally sits on the board of Meta, whose chief govt Mark Zuckerberg has been repeatedly criticised by Trump for allegedly blocking conservative feedback on its platforms.
Trump already seems to have been influenced by Andreessen. In a publish on his social media community Fact Social on Wednesday, through which he introduced the nomination of Gail Slater to steer the antitrust division of the Division of Justice, Trump wrote: “Huge Tech has run wild for years, stifling competitors in our most progressive sector and, as everyone knows, utilizing its market energy to crack down on the rights of so many Individuals, in addition to these of Little Tech!”
Little Tech, a descriptor that refers to start-ups, is a time period popularised by Andreessen, whose enterprise agency declared in July that its “political efforts as a agency are totally targeted on defending Little Tech”.
Andreessen and Trump are additionally each supporters of cryptocurrencies. Trump’s marketing campaign rode a wave of help from crypto teams, which spent closely to again his election marketing campaign. Andreessen’s enterprise agency has raised billions of {dollars} to spend money on crypto tasks.
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