Tech bros love J.D. Vance. Many CEOs are scared stiff

J.D. Vance’s life is full of twists and turns. His memoir from 2016, “Hillbilly Elegy”, chronicles how a boy from a drug-afflicted home in the Ohio rustbelt, who almost flunked high school, made it to Yale Law School. As a bestselling author, celebrated by liberals for his unflinching portrayal of left-behind people and places, he turned staunchly anti-establishment, attacking what he saw as business elites benefiting from moving factories abroad and paying low wages at home. As a venture capitalist, he was mentored in Silicon Valley by Peter Thiel, a conservative contrarian who then backed him for the Senate. Now he crusades against the very tech giants that, like Meta, owner of Facebook, made Mr Thiel billions as an early investor. He was once a “never-Trumper”. Now he is Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running-mate.

Among entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, Mr Vance’s nomination has led tech bros who once kept their arch-conservative clothes in the closet to come out in full MAGA regalia. Elon Musk, who according to the Wall Street Journal is planning to throw $45m a month behind Mr Trump’s presidential run, said the Trump-Vance ticket “resounds with victory”. Delian Asparouhov of the Founders Fund, a venture-capital (VC) firm co-founded by Mr Thiel, jumped the gun with boyish insouciance, tweeting: “We have a former tech VC in the White House. Greatest country on earth baby.” Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the eponymous co-founders of a VC goliath, released a video the day after Mr Vance’s nomination backing Mr Trump (albeit with pretend sheepishness: “Sorry Mom,” Mr Horowitz bleated).