How a network of tech billionaires funded the sudden rise of JD Vance

LAST month, JD Vance flew to San Francisco to hold a fundraiser for Donald Trump and to host a private dinner afterward with two dozen tech and crypto executives and investors. The location was the opulent Pacific Heights mansion of David Sacks, an entrepreneur and podcaster whom Vance had met through tech investor Peter Thiel. Vance, now 39, had worked for one of Thiel’s investment firms in San Francisco in 2016.

During the US$300,000-a-person dinner that night, Trump, seated between Sacks and another tech investor, Chamath Palihapitiya, informally polled the room about whom to choose as his running mate. Even with another vice-presidential hopeful, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, in attendance, Sacks, Palihapitiya and others all had the same answer: Pick Vance, they told Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the exchange.

Vance, the Ohio senator selected by Trump this week to be his running mate, spent less than five years in Silicon Valley’s tech industry, where he worked as a junior venture capitalist and a biotech executive. But while he made little mark on the tech scene, it was a formative period that has powered Vance’s stunning ascent in the Republican Party – and is likely to influence his political future.

Crucial stint

Vance’s stint in tech was crucial for forging connections with billionaire executives and investors, including Thiel, Sacks and Elon Musk, who owns the social platform X. Over and over, those men have funded Vance’s political ambitions, raised his profile among other wealthy donors and on social media, and lobbied Trump to choose him as his running mate.

Before the 2022 midterm elections, Thiel gave US$15 million to support Vance’s campaign for Senate. Sacks donated US$1 million to a political action committee backing Vance’s run. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump cited Vance’s “very successful business career in technology and finance” as one reason he was chosen as his running mate.

“His experience in tech has absolutely influenced his thinking,” Nathan Leamer, the CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies, a tech policy consulting firm, said of Vance. “He built rapport with some important influencers now onboard with Trump.”

Yet if Trump and Vance are elected to the White House in November, it is unclear whether Vance will be on the same page with Silicon Valley’s interests. He has praised the Federal Trade Commission, which has brought antitrust cases against tech’s biggest companies, and called for the breakup of Google because it was an “explicitly progressive technology company”. Representatives for Vance, the Trump campaign and Sacks did not respond to requests for comment.

“JD is an exceptional pick,” Palihapitiya said in a text message. “We will all be better off as he works on all of our behalfs.”

Vance’s path to the tech industry began when he was a student at Yale Law School. In 2011, he met Thiel after the investor delivered a speech at Yale, where he derided the professional prospects of law students and argued that their time might be better spent in Silicon Valley.

“Peter’s talk remains the most significant moment of my time at Yale Law School,” Vance wrote in a 2020 essay for a Catholic literary journal.

Vance, who graduated from Yale Law in 2013, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as an executive at Circuit Therapeutics, a biotechnology company.

Frederic Moll, the CEO of Circuit at the time, said he hired Vance because “he was a very smart guy with an impressive background in the law, but also it was a favour to Peter”, referring to Thiel. Thiel’s venture capital firm had previously invested in one of Moll’s companies.

Vance kept in touch with Thiel, who wrote a promotional blurb for Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. Thiel also encouraged the hiring of Vance for a role at Mithril Capital, a venture firm that Thiel co-founded, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Vance joined the firm in 2016 as a principal. Colleagues mostly remember him for introducing them to the ultra-sweet Big Red soda, a far cry from the La Croix seltzers that define Silicon Valley culture, one fellow investor said.

Around then, Vance’s profile began rising as Hillbilly Elegy became a bestseller. While Thiel had gained attention for his support of Trump, Vance went in a different direction, calling himself a “never-Trump guy” in an interview with Charlie Rose that fall.

Several months later, Vance left Mithril Capital after butting heads with the firm’s managing partner, Ajay Royan, three people familiar with the situation said.

“JD is a friend, and he was a talented, valued member of the Mithril team,” Royan said in a statement.

In 2017, Vance became a partner at Revolution, a venture firm founded by America Online co-founder Steve Case, and began splitting his time between Ohio and Washington, where the firm was based. He worked there for about 18 months.

In interviews, Case has said Vance “wasn’t really working that much” at Revolution. Case declined to comment through a spokesperson.

In 2020, Vance founded his own venture firm, Narya Capital, in Cincinnati. He turned to his tech connections, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, billionaire investor Marc Andreessen and Thiel, to raise a US$120 million fund. Thiel agreed to serve on Narya’s leadership advisory committee, a person with knowledge of the relationship said.

During this time, Vance became interested in backing tech platforms favoured by conservatives, including the social network Parler. He advised Rebekah Mercer, Parler’s controlling shareholder and a major Republican donor, and considered investing in the company, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.

Narya did not ultimately invest in Parler, but invested alongside Thiel in Rumble, a YouTube competitor favoured by conservatives, in 2021. Narya also invested in AppHarvest, a Kentucky-based indoor farming company, which went public in late 2020. AppHarvest filed for bankruptcy last year.

Around that time, Vance co-founded a network of major conservative donors with some tech leaders, called the Rockbridge Network. In July 2021, he announced a run for Ohio’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat. Thiel agreed to back him and brokered talks between Trump and Vance, who sought support from the former president.

“Like some others, JD Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Trump said when he eventually endorsed Vance’s Senate run.

Thiel-Trump relationship

Thiel’s relationship with Trump has since soured while Vance’s ties to the former president have strengthened. At a conference in Aspen, Colorado, last month, Thiel said he would vote for Trump only “if you hold a gun to my head”.

Thiel placed calls to encourage Trump to choose Vance, two people briefed on the calls said. With Vance now Trump’s running mate, Thiel is significantly more likely to back the ticket, two other people close to the investor said. After Trump announced Vance as his pick Monday, Thiel messaged close associates to express his excitement, they said.

Vance “was very much a friend of the Thiel network going back years”, said Crystal McKellar, a venture capitalist who worked with Vance at Mithril Capital. “It seemed like Peter saw something really special in him and wanted to encourage it.”

Musk also encouraged Trump to choose Vance in private communications recently. On Monday, Musk called Vance’s selection an “excellent decision”.

Vance has relied on Sacks, whom he called “one of my closest confidants” in politics at a gala this spring. After that event, Vance introduced Sacks to Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

The former president has been impressed by Sacks’ wealth and media profile, a person familiar with Trump’s thinking said, and Sacks spoke on Monday at the Republican National Convention.

At the San Francisco fundraiser for Trump last month, Sacks returned the favour to Vance. The high-profile event, which raised US$12 million for Trump’s campaign, would not have happened without Vance, Sacks said, according to a person with knowledge of his remarks there.

“This is who I want by Trump’s side,” Sacks posted on X on Monday, adding, “God bless JD, God bless Trump, and God bless the USA.” NYTIMES