SAN FRANCISCO — Chris Larsen, the deep-pocketed crypto executive emerging as a force among Democratic donors in the midterms, told POLITICO he plans to boost Gavin Newsom “any way we can” in his likely 2028 presidential campaign.
“I’m a big believer in Gavin,” the San Francisco billionaire and Ripple co-founder said in an interview. “He gets it right — he gets the balance right between tech and the broader community, which with AI is just going to get increasingly complicated and complex.”
Amid a broader shift rightward in Silicon Valley, Larsen’s remarks reflect an early rallying by Democratic donors here around the home-state governor in the run-up to 2028, according to interviews with more than a dozen prominent donors, bundlers and strategists in the tech sector. Garry Tan, another prolific Democratic donor and CEO of the startup incubator Y Combinator, told POLITICO that Newsom offers an alternative to the progressive left of the Democratic Party that threatens to kill the “golden goose of tech” that fuels California’s economy and tax base.
“He's actually shown that he can be a moderate leader here,” Tan said in an interview, while stopping short of an endorsement. “Right now, people want to eat the goose. I’m like, ‘Hey, how about we just enjoy the eggs?’”
For Newsom, Silicon Valley represents an enormously consequential constituency — and an increasingly antagonistic one in the Trump era. In the most recent flare-up, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, a longtime friend of Newsom, reportedly told Newsom that he was leaving the state over a proposed wealth tax during a tense conversation last winter at Larsen’s Christmas party inside a treehouse on a Marin County estate tucked among a grove of redwoods.
But among tech influencers still opening their wallets to Democrats, Newsom is seizing an early advantage. The former mayor of San Francisco, he has extensive ties to a Silicon Valley fundraising ATM that can power presidential runs. He has raised or helped raise into the hundreds of millions over the years in his own campaigns and with super PACs and other committees, including those to fight a recall and redraw congressional districts in response to Donald Trump. He remains close with tech titans like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman and investor Ron Conway. And he has spent years forging relationships with the startup founders and venture capitalists who have transformed the Bay Area into a global economic engine, putting him on a texting-by-first-name basis with numerous industry leaders.
“Some of those tech donors that crossed over to the dark side since Trump may come back into the fold — and the only candidate I really see them coming back in for might be Gavin, only because they’ve known him for so long,” said a Democratic donor adviser, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Earlier this week, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, another megadonor, told the Los Angeles Times, “Gavin is the candidate who can motivate both the left and the center.”
Newsom hardly has a lock on Democrats in Silicon Valley. Kamala Harris, a fellow Californian who’s weighing a 2028 run, posted record-breaking fundraising hauls in the 2024 presidential campaign, including from many tech donors. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held multiple Palo Alto fundraisers at the homes of wealthy donors during the 2020 campaign, when he was viewed as a centrist alternative to the liberal populism of Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents much of Silicon Valley, has long been a top fundraiser here, though he sparred with some billionaires over his support for a California wealth tax.
Contenders like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are in the earlier stages of building out their Silicon Valley donor networks, according to several Democratic consultants in the region. Moore hosted AI executives from companies like Microsoft at his governor’s mansion last month.
Many Democratic donors and bundlers say they would move money based on their calculation of which Democrat has the best chance of winning back the White House. In a sign of how shallow loyalties may run, many Bay Area tech donors, including those in the emerging AI industry, have spent tens of millions of dollars to boost San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan — who had been a frequent Newsom critic before launching his own bid for California governor — as Newsom’s would-be successor.
But Newsom is cashing in on years of goodwill here. Protecting and promoting Silicon Valley has been a throughline of his mayorship and two terms as governor. He has resisted policies he believes would undermine California’s tech dominance — from bills to regulate AI or ban self-driving trucks to the proposed tax on billionaires’ assets that he warned could drive vital revenue out of state.
While he is more closely associated with San Francisco’s old-money orbit — dominated by storied figures and families like the Gettys and the Buells — than with Silicon Valley, whose beating heart sits an hour south of San Francisco, the two worlds are intertwined.
As a second Democratic fundraiser in Silicon Valley put it, “There’s overlap.”
Plus, it’s San Francisco itself that has become the economic center of gravity for the nation’s AI boom, minting a new class of wealthy investors, employees and executives who have already reshaped the midterm donor landscape.
Newsom’s supporters in the Valley argue he’s the liberal counterpoint to Trumpism — a skilled orator who could win while keeping a pro-business outlook. Larsen, the crypto titan worth nearly $13 billion, argued the governor offers a measured approach to regulating tech, supporting consumer protections without putting a drag on the sector.
“I do think that he is going to be the candidate,” Larsen said. “His instincts are incredible. It's super early, but we're already supporting him any way we can.”
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