Who is billionaire Ben Horowitz – and why is his ‘significant donation’ to Kamala Harris making headlines? The Silicon Valley giant supported Trump three months ago and slammed Biden’s tech policies
Horowitz described the Democratic presidential candidate as a ‘great friend’ to him and his wife Felicia; his venture capital firm is behind start-ups including Medium, Skype and Lyft
Here’s what to know about the billionaire and why his actions are critical ahead of the presidential election on November 5.
Who is Ben Horowitz?
The billionaire is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which he co-founded in 2009 with Marc Andreessen. Per Forbes, the firm has more than US$42 billion in assets under management. Andreessen Horowitz is behind start-ups like Medium, Skype, Lyft and Okta.
The two co-founders had worked at Netscape and co-founded Opsware, which was sold to HP for US$1.6 billion in 2007.
His firm endorsed Trump in July
The decision received backlash, with the San Francisco Standard calling Horowitz and his wife “ex-liberal billionaires” and noting that they were formerly major Democrat donors who had turned right-wing.