Fifteen billionaires have put a total of $336 million into California and national politics so far this year, a new report released this week shows.
More than half of them are from the San Francisco Bay Area, where organizers on Thursday rallied at the home of the second-biggest individual political spender on state elections, Ripple co-founder and angel investor Chris Larsen, to announce the report’s findings.
The analysis was published by California Common Good, which advocates for the full funding of education and other social safety net services. It found that Larsen personally gave roughly $28 million to various state and local races this year, boosting candidates like East Bay state senate candidate Scott Sakakihara, a former Palantir employee, through his Grow California PAC.
He also tried to defeat local measures such as San Francisco’s ”Overpaid CEO” tax, Proposition D, and was joined in that effort by venture capitalist Michael Moritz and a host of firms that would have been on the hook for the tax.
Ripple, Larsen’s cryptocurrency company, spent $56 million across state and federal elections, including roughly $5 million to Golden State Promise, a statewide PAC opposing the California billionaire tax proposal — which nevertheless made it on the November ballot — and $49 million to federal PACs advancing a crypto-friendly agenda.
Combined with Ripple’s corporate giving, Larsen’s spending footprint across local, state and federal elections reached $93 million, according to the report.
Larsen’s personal giving at the state level was dwarfed only by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who individually spent $86 million on a host of moderate, pro-business political action committees across California, largely in reaction to the proposed billionaire tax. He also spent $500,000 to oppose the San Francisco CEO tax.
The report identifies Larsen, Brin, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz as the top four political spenders on state and federal elections this year — and the lion’s share of all 15 billionaires’ combined spending. Collectively, the four men were behind $209 million in personal spending this cycle, a 147 percent increase over their spending in the entire 2023-24 election cycle.
Add their companies’ giving, and the total reaches $331 million, according to the report.
California is home to an estimated 200 billionaires, according to Forbes. The report focused on the top spenders but ignored those who spent heavily on their own campaigns or that of a relative.
Therefore, the report’s methodology states, former venture capitalist Tom Steyer did not make the list, despite his being politically active enough to spend more than $200 million running for governor. Neither did billionaire Irwin Jacobs, who California Common Good said would have made the list but argued much of his political spending was connected to his granddaughter’s San Diego congressional race.
The report authors swapped Doordash CEO Tony Xu in Irwin’s place instead. The total list: Larsen, Brin, Anna & Greg Brockman, Moritz, John Doerr, Reed Hastings, Patrick Collison, Tim Draper, Peter Thiel, Eric Schmidt, Ron Conway, Stewart Resnick, and Xu.
Money spent doesn’t necessarily translate into political influence. In 2024, Moritz spent millions in the San Francisco election, with little effect. This year, Steyer didn’t make it past the primary in the governor’s race, and neither did centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti in his run to replace Nancy Pelosi.
Silicon Valley’s favored gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan — who raised more than $15 million from C-suites including Brin — flopped in the June primary at sixth place. As did their favored challenger to South Bay Congressman Ro Khanna, Ethan Agarwal.
San Francisco is no stranger to concentrated wealth shaping City Hall, and big-money spenders did well here during the last primary. Big business interests of the past include real estate developer Walter Shorenstein, who for decades spent hundreds of millions to buy and build tall buildings, stop the San Francisco Giants from moving to Florida, and cement his reputation as a Democratic kingmaker in local and national politics.
A source close to Larsen said he and his wife, Lyna Lam, were not home at the time of the demonstration. A spokesperson for Larsen declined to comment on the rally or the report.
The report also said a web of political action committees received millions from California billionaires and big corporations – and found that 20 had already raised a combined $289 million this year. That amount towers over the total spending from PACs in the 2024 primary elections, the report said.
