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Tag: Reid Hoffman

  • Newly released emails and a Trump-ordered investigation have thrust Reid Hoffman into the Epstein firestorm | Fortune

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    Reid Hoffman has spent years trying to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein, having apologized repeatedly for his former ties to the disgraced financier. Now, the LinkedIn cofounder and prominent Democratic donor has been thrown into a widening political storm—one fueled by the release of emails between him and Epstein in the late 2010s and President Donald Trump’s efforts to scrutinize Democrats named in the Epstein files after newly released documents revealed seemingly extensive ties between Epstein and Trump that appear to challenge the president’s account of their relationship. 

    Trump has emphatically and consistently denied any wrongdoing, knowledge of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, or involvement with the allegations mentioned in newly released emails

    The controversy has escalated rapidly in recent days, as Trump ordered a Justice Department investigation into Hoffman, several other high-profile figures, and institutions like JPMorgan Chase, and then abruptly reversed his stance and spoke out in favor of releasing the full trove of Epstein files. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed on Nov. 13 that she would launch the probe. The move was widely interpreted as a political counteroffensive designed to deflect attention from Trump’s own ties to Epstein—ties that the 20,000 newly released documents described in detail.

    Bondi has attempted to further connect Hoffman to Epstein in the past. During her contentious Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on October 7, she repeatedly invoked Hoffman’s name when questioned about Epstein and Trump and called him “one of Epstein’s closest confidants.” Hoffman has repeatedly denied any such allegations.

    On November 14, Hoffman hit back, taking to X to demand “Trump should release all of the Epstein files: every person and every document in the files.” The LinkedIn co-founder accused Trump’s probe of being “nothing more than political persecution and slander” and claimed he was never a client of Epstein’s nor did he engage with him in any capacity other than fundraising.

    In a Sunday evening Truth Social post, however, the president doubled down. He said calls to release the entire cache of Epstein files were a “Democrat Hoax” and declared, “The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!”

    A White House spokesperson reiterated some of Trump’s claims, telling Fortune, “By releasing tens of thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have. The Democrat Party did nothing about Epstein for years; they are only pretending to care about these victims now as they attempt to score political points against President Trump.”

    Hoffman did not respond to a Fortune request for comment regarding his ties to Epstein. JPMorgan Chase, Clinton, and Summers also did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.

    Summers apologized for his relationship with Epstein in a statement to the Harvard Crimson, writing, “I have great regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.” 

    A spokesperson for Clinton refuted the Trump administration’s claims in a post on X. “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else,” they wrote.

    JPMorgan Chase, which previously settled a multi-million-dollar lawsuit with Epstein victims, responded to Trump’s probe in a statement to CNN: “The government had information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks. We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts. We ended our relationship with him years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges.” (The bank did, however, continue to bank Epstein even after his 2008 solicitation of a minor conviction, working with him until 2013.)

    When Hoffman met Epstein

    The relationship between Hoffman and Epstein began through Joi Ito, who served as director of the MIT Media Lab. According to multiple reports, Hoffman first encountered Epstein when he helped solicit donations for the MIT Media Lab from the convicted sex offender. In July 2013, Epstein met with Hoffman and others at MIT’s campus. At this time, Epstein was already a registered sex offender, following his 2008 guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida.​

    Hoffman then visited Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ito was also present during this trip, which was described as being for the purpose of raising funds for MIT. According to Ito’s statement to the Journal, Hoffman participated in a “fundraising event” on the island “at my request.” Documents also indicated that Hoffman and Ito were planning another visit to Epstein’s island later in 2014, with plans to travel from Palm Beach to the island for a weekend and then onward to Boston.​

    Documents obtained by the Journal in 2023 also note that Hoffman planned to stay overnight at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse on December 4, 2014, followed by a “breakfast party” the next morning that was expected to include both Epstein and Bill Gates. Whether this visit actually occurred remains unclear.​

    The last known in-person meeting between Epstein and Hoffman occurred in 2015, when Hoffman hosted a dinner attended by Epstein along with several Silicon Valley luminaries, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel. Hoffman has stated that he invited Epstein to this gathering based on assurances from Joi Ito that Epstein had been vetted and cleared by MIT’s approval process. 

    In 2023, Hoffman claimed the 2015 dinner was the last time he interacted with Epstein. Unsealed emails reviewed by Fortune, however, show that Epstein wrote to Hoffman at least once in 2017. This correspondence appears to be related to potential fundraising efforts intended to offset cuts Trump wanted to make to federal spending in his first term in office. 

    In an email to Hoffman dated March 16, 2017 and reproduced here with the original typos and other errors, Epstein says, “a HUGE donor advised fund is an elegant solution to the cuts trump proposes to what some consider critical programs. you could organzie a huge public charity that would continue the work of many worthwhile orgs. not my thing but structurally beautiful. its the wealthiest now stepping into a quasi govt funding. national endowment for arts. climate science, as extraordinary amounts of wealth have moved into private hands. elons and jeff space goals should be mirrored with many other former govt ones. hope to see you soon.”

    The newly released emails do not show whether Hoffman ever replied.

    Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail while awaiting trial on further sex trafficking charges in 2019.

    MIT’s external investigation report, released in January 2020, also described Hoffman’s timeline. The report revealed that in July 2016, Ito sought advice from Hoffman about whether to allow Epstein to attend a Media Lab conference with “lots of people” who may “see him and maybe know he’s involved.” The report did not disclose whether Hoffman offered any advice or what it was.​

    While Elon Musk accused Hoffman of being a client of Epstein’s in 2024, no evidence of that genre of relationship has actually emerged. Hoffman has also vehemently denied any such characterization. 

    Hoffman has issued several public apologies and statements regarding his interactions with Epstein. After scandal over MIT’s Epstein connections erupted publicly in September 2019, Hoffman apologized in a statement to Axios: “By agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful.” He reiterated this position in 2023 to the Journal, stating, “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors.”

    On Tuesday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on a measure that would compel the DOJ to make all Epstein files publicly available “in a searchable and downloadable format” within 30 days.

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    Lily Mae Lazarus

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  • At Trump’s urging, Bondi says US will investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes

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    Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department, and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I’m allowed to do it.”In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”The president’s demand for an investigation — and Bondi’s quick acquiescence — is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein — though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.None of Trump’s proposed targets were accused of sex crimesA JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, said the company regretted associating with Epstein “but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”“The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” she said. The company agreed previously to pay millions of dollars to Epstein’s victims, who had sued arguing that the bank ignored red flags about criminal activity.Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier’s crimes. He also has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s known victims.Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña posted on X Friday: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.”Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, but was spared a long jail term when the U.S. attorney in Florida agreed not to prosecute him over allegations that he had paid many other children for sexual acts. After serving about a year in jail and a work release program, Epstein resumed his business and social life until federal prosecutors in New York revived the case in 2019. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Summers and Hoffman had nothing to do with either case, but both were friendly with Epstein and exchanged emails with him. Those messages were among the documents released this week, along with other correspondence Epstein had with friends and business associates in the years before his death.Nothing in the messages suggested any wrongdoing on the men’s part, other than associating with someone who had been accused of sex crimes against children.Summers, who served in Clinton’s cabinet and is a former Harvard University president, previously said in a statement that he has “great regrets in my life” and that “my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”On social media Friday night, Hoffman called for Trump to release all the Epstein files, saying they will show that “the calls for baseless investigations of me are nothing more than political persecution and slander.” He added, “I was never a client of Epstein’s and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT.” Hoffman bankrolled writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against Trump.After Epstein’s sex trafficking arrest in 2019, Hoffman said he’d only had a few interactions with Epstein, all related to his fundraising for MIT’s Media Lab. He nevertheless apologized, saying that “by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice.”Bondi, in her post, praised Clayton as “one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country” and said the Justice Department “will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”Trump called Clayton “a great man, a great attorney,” though he said Bondi chose him for the job.Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, took over in April as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — the same office that indicted Epstein and won a sex trafficking conviction against Epstein’s longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2021.Trump changes course on Epstein filesTrump suggested while campaigning last year that he’d seek to open up the government’s case files on Epstein, but changed course in recent months, blaming Democrats and painting the matter as a “hoax” amid questions about what knowledge he may have had about Epstein’s yearslong exploitation of underage girls.On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three Epstein email exchanges that referenced Trump, including one from 2019 in which Epstein said the president “knew about the girls” and asked Maxwell to stop.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of having “selectively leaked emails” to smear Trump.Soon after, Republicans on the committee disclosed a far bigger trove of Epstein’s email correspondence, including messages he sent to longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon and to Britain’s former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Andrew settled a lawsuit out of court with one of Epstein’s victims, who said she had been paid to have sex with the prince.The House is speeding toward a vote next week to force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein.“I don’t care about it, release or not,” Trump said Friday. “If you’re going to do it, then you have to go into Epstein’s friends,” he added, naming Clinton and Hoffman.Still, he said: “This is a Democrat hoax. And a couple, a few Republicans have gone along with it because they’re weak and ineffective.”__Bedayn reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.

    NEW YORK —

    Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.

    Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.

    Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.

    Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department, and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

    Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”

    “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I’m allowed to do it.”

    In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

    The president’s demand for an investigation — and Bondi’s quick acquiescence — is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.

    It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein — though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.

    None of Trump’s proposed targets were accused of sex crimes

    A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, said the company regretted associating with Epstein “but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”

    “The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” she said. The company agreed previously to pay millions of dollars to Epstein’s victims, who had sued arguing that the bank ignored red flags about criminal activity.

    Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier’s crimes. He also has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s known victims.

    Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña posted on X Friday: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.”

    Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, but was spared a long jail term when the U.S. attorney in Florida agreed not to prosecute him over allegations that he had paid many other children for sexual acts. After serving about a year in jail and a work release program, Epstein resumed his business and social life until federal prosecutors in New York revived the case in 2019. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

    Summers and Hoffman had nothing to do with either case, but both were friendly with Epstein and exchanged emails with him. Those messages were among the documents released this week, along with other correspondence Epstein had with friends and business associates in the years before his death.

    Nothing in the messages suggested any wrongdoing on the men’s part, other than associating with someone who had been accused of sex crimes against children.

    Summers, who served in Clinton’s cabinet and is a former Harvard University president, previously said in a statement that he has “great regrets in my life” and that “my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”

    On social media Friday night, Hoffman called for Trump to release all the Epstein files, saying they will show that “the calls for baseless investigations of me are nothing more than political persecution and slander.” He added, “I was never a client of Epstein’s and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT.” Hoffman bankrolled writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against Trump.

    After Epstein’s sex trafficking arrest in 2019, Hoffman said he’d only had a few interactions with Epstein, all related to his fundraising for MIT’s Media Lab. He nevertheless apologized, saying that “by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice.”

    Bondi, in her post, praised Clayton as “one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country” and said the Justice Department “will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”

    Trump called Clayton “a great man, a great attorney,” though he said Bondi chose him for the job.

    Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, took over in April as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — the same office that indicted Epstein and won a sex trafficking conviction against Epstein’s longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2021.

    Trump changes course on Epstein files

    Trump suggested while campaigning last year that he’d seek to open up the government’s case files on Epstein, but changed course in recent months, blaming Democrats and painting the matter as a “hoax” amid questions about what knowledge he may have had about Epstein’s yearslong exploitation of underage girls.

    On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three Epstein email exchanges that referenced Trump, including one from 2019 in which Epstein said the president “knew about the girls” and asked Maxwell to stop.

    White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of having “selectively leaked emails” to smear Trump.

    Soon after, Republicans on the committee disclosed a far bigger trove of Epstein’s email correspondence, including messages he sent to longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon and to Britain’s former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Andrew settled a lawsuit out of court with one of Epstein’s victims, who said she had been paid to have sex with the prince.

    The House is speeding toward a vote next week to force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein.

    “I don’t care about it, release or not,” Trump said Friday. “If you’re going to do it, then you have to go into Epstein’s friends,” he added, naming Clinton and Hoffman.

    Still, he said: “This is a Democrat hoax. And a couple, a few Republicans have gone along with it because they’re weak and ineffective.”

    __

    Bedayn reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.

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  • Trump responds to appearance in new Epstein emails by pushing DOJ probe of Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman | Fortune

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    President Donald Trump moved aggressively to deflect scrutiny on Friday after a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein’s private emails — released this week by the House Oversight Committee — resurfaced his own long-scrutinized relationship with the disgraced financier.

    Hours after the documents circulated widely online, Trump took to Truth Social with a sweeping demand: he said he will ask Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice, and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s ties to “Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions,” claiming that “all arrows point to the Democrats.”

    Bondi quickly agreed, posting on X Friday afternoon that she had assigned Attorney Jay Clayton to the case. Clayton is a high-profile figure among Republicans, having chaired the SEC during Trump’s first term and now acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. 

    Clinton has strongly denied that he had knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. In the emails, Epstein mentioned several times that Clinton was “never on the island.” However, the two knew each other in the early 2000s. Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    On the other hand, Summers had a seemingly close and unusually personal relationship with the disgraced financier who at times acted as his informal relationship coach. Newly released emails from 2017 to 2019 show the former Treasury secretary corresponding with Epstein regularly, sometimes multiple times a day, seeking advice about his interactions with a woman in London.

    In one exchange, Summers lamented that the woman had grown distant: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy.’ I said awfully coy u are,” he wrote. Epstein replied within minutes, offering reassurance and strategy: “she’s smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy … annoyed shows caring, no whining showed strength.”

    Other emails show Summers forwarding Epstein notes from the woman and asking whether he should respond. “Think no response for a while probably appropriate,” Summers wrote in one case. Epstein encouraged the silence, replying, “She’s already begining to sound needy 🙂 nice.”

    Summers has previously said he regrets his past ties to Epstein. Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, billionaire investor and major Democratic donor, had an established relationship with Epstein, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Schedules show Epstein planned multiple trips with him—including two visits to Epstein’s island, Little St. James in 2014—and arranged for Hoffman to stay overnight at his Manhattan townhouse before attending a “breakfast party” with Bill Gates and others the next morning.

    Hoffman now says he deeply regrets the interactions. “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors,” he told the Journal. “Ultimately I made the mistake, and I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.”

    Hoffman could not be reached for comment.

    Trump’s inclusion of JPMorgan comes after the bank paid out more than $450 million in 2023 across multiple settlements related to its historic relationship with Epstein — including a $290 million agreement with a class of victims and a $75 million deal with the U.S. Virgin Islands. The bank has repeatedly said it “deeply regrets any association” with Epstein and would not have kept him as a client had it known of his crimes.

    JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    Epstein repeatedly described Trump in blunt, often hostile terms

    The release of the files — which Trump framed as an effort to expose an “Epstein Hoax” that he claims Democrats are weaponizing to distract from the shutdown– show Epstein repeatedly discussing Trump. They contradict Trump’s own account of their split, and Epstein offers his private, often caustic assessments of the man who would become president.

    Across messages with lawyers, acquaintances, reporters, academics, and political figures, Epstein invoked Trump constantly, often bragging that he possessed insider insight into Trump’s private world. In one 2017 exchange, Epstein dismissed him sharply: “your world does not understand how dumb he really is. he will blame everyone around him.” A year later, he described Trump as “evil beyond belief, mad… nuts!!!” 

    The emails also directly challenge one of Trump’s most frequently repeated claims: that he expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for inappropriate behavior. 

    In a 2019 message to author Michael Wolff, Epstein flatly rejected the story: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.”In another email, Epstein claimed a woman who worked at the club had been involved with him and wrote, “Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period.” The documents do not substantiate these assertions, and the White House has denied them.

    One of the most explosive lines appears in a 2011 note to Ghislaine Maxwell: “that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.” During a press conference, the White House pointed to the testimony of Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who committed suicide earlier this year and said Trump did not participate “in anything.”

    Epstein also imagined himself as holding leverage over Trump. In a December 2018 exchange, after someone suggested Trump’s critics were simply trying to “take down” the president, Epstein replied: “yes thx. its wild. because i am the one able to take him down.” 

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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    Eva Roytburg

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  • Reid Hoffman and David Sacks Are Feuding on X Over AI and ‘Dirty Tricks’

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    The discourse over AI regulation is heating up and spilling out on social media. 

    White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks and billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman exchanged barbs after Hoffman expressed his support for Anthropic’s approach to AI innovation and safety in a thread posted to X on Monday.

    “The leading funder of lawfare and dirty tricks against President Trump wants you to know that ‘Anthropic is one of the good guys.’ Thanks for clarifying that. All we needed to know,” Sacks posted on social media platform X.

    Hoffman, who is also a major Democratic donor and AI optimist, responded minutes later. He accused Sacks of not actually reading the thread in which he advocates for “a light-touch regulatory landscape that prioritizes innovation and enables new players to compete on level playing fields.” He also referenced Microsoft, Google and OpenAI as “trying to deploy AI the right way.” 

    “When you are ready to have a professional conversation about AI’s impact on America, I’m here to chat,” Hoffman wrote. “Also: crying ‘lawfare and dirty tricks’ is particularly rich, given the Trump Administration’s recent actions.”

    In a wide-ranging conversation prior to the social media spat (and on the heels of an event called Entrepreneurs First Demo Day in San Francisco), Hoffman spoke to Inc. about his approach to AI regulation, describing it as “iterative deployment and development,” rather than preemptive, fear-based rulemaking. He compared it to how motor vehicles preceded the introduction and mandate of seatbelts.

    “Let’s limit the regulatory stuff to transparency, monitoring, accountability, to get a good sense of what’s actually going on, and then only impose when we know that there’s something potentially catastrophic,” he says.

    Some critics worry, however, that lawmakers are not informed enough to craft meaningful regulations for technology that is changing as rapidly as AI, whereas others blame regulatory inaction on lobbying and campaign contributions. Hoffman says that he believes frontier AI labs can help govern themselves.

    “When I was on the board of OpenAI, part of what we were doing was trying to make sure all the top labs were talking to each other about how to do safety the right way, but it grew more and more tense with regulators,” he says. 

    “It’d be useful to have some kinds of cross-collaboration on what is good alignment, what is good safety,” he adds.

    Hoffman’s uneasy relationship with the Trump administration precedes the October X feud. In late September, Trump mentioned Hoffman as a possible target of a probe along with George Soros, after a Reuters reporter asked him who he might investigate in connection with domestic terrorism, Reuters reported. Trump was signing a memorandum meant to crack down on domestic terrorism and political violence several days after he signed an executive order designating anti-fascism or “Antifa” a domestic terrorism organization. Both Soros and Hoffman are substantial donors to the Democratic Party, and Hoffman also helped to fund E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against the president through a nonprofit, CNBC reported.

    Hoffman tells Inc. that these developments have not changed his politics, although he has been “careful about trying to fund stuff very directly.”

    Hoffman describes himself as “very pro-American society, very pro-American prosperity and business.”

    “As far as I’m aware,” he says, “Antifa is a fictional organization and I certainly would never have deliberately funded anything that would support domestic terrorism.”

    Hoffman also says he has not backed pro-AI super PACs, two of which emerged in one week in September to support AI-friendly politicians regardless of political affiliation, The New York Times reported. Tech titans have also been spotted hobnobbing with the president, including at a September dinner at the White House. Executives including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Bill Gates reportedly discussed various AI-related investments and educational initiatives, while also praising the president. Hoffman says the fawning “could be a little silly,” but says he believes business leaders do have a role to play in U.S. politics.

    “Especially in democracies, it’s very important for all business leaders to be in collaboration [and] discussion with the elected leaders,” Hoffman says. “Technology sets the drumbeat about what happens with society, what happens with industries and so forth, and so I think that dialog is extremely important.”

    Hoffman has himself co-founded two AI-powered startups in recent years. He co-founded Inflection AI together with Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan in 2022, to create a more empathetic large language model. The company pivoted in 2024 after Microsoft paid a fee to license its technology and hired away much of its top talent. And earlier this year, he launched a new venture, Manas AI, to leverage AI to cut down on the time and costs inherent to therapeutic drug discovery.

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    Chloe Aiello

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  • 5 Famous Founders Who Failed—Then Built Billion-Dollar Companies

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    Starting a business doesn’t always go so smoothly. More than 20 percent of businesses fail in their first year, with nearly 50 percent closing their doors in the first five years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while those numbers aren’t as bad as the oft-cited myth that half of all startups close their doors in the first year, there’s still a significant chance of failure.

    For some founders, the failure of a startup is a one-and-done thing. The thought of taking that sort of risk again, both financially and emotionally, is too daunting. Failure doesn’t make you persona non grata in the funding world, though. In some cases, it can be considered a good thing to venture capitalists. In fact, some of the most successful entrepreneurs in history have stumbled or flopped before, they went on to launch businesses that had a much greater degree of success.

    Here’s a look at five founders who didn’t get things quite right in their first run at entrepreneurship.

    Reid Hoffman

    Before finding success with LinkedIn, Hoffman tried launching another sort of social media site in 1997. SocialNet was basically a Facebook/Match mashup before either of those sites existed. It was designed as a place to meet and make friends online (and, should you want, to date them). There weren’t as many people using the Internet then, though, and the technology was too rudimentary to foster those connections. It shut down in 2000—and Hoffman refunded all of the capital the company’s investors put into it. After joining the founding team atPayPal, he founded LinkedIn in 2002, eventually taking it public in 2011 before it was acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion in 2016.

    Steve Jobs

    Steve Jobs experienced failure in a way that’s much different than the other founders in this list. Apple was a hit from the start, but nine years after he co-founded the company, he was famously forced out in 1985 following a power struggle with John Scully. He went on to found NeXT, a tech company focused on workstations for higher education facilities. It flopped – and Apple bought the company in 1997 and brought Jobs back as CEO of Apple. The failures of NeXT and his ejection from Apple had given him a new perspective, though, which helped him shape the company into the $3.67 trillion powerhouse it is today.

    “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” Jobs told graduates at Stanford University in 2005. “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

    Bill Gates and Paul Allen

    Four years before Gates and Allen launched Microsoft, the duo teamed up on another company. Traf-O-Data was meant to take the raw data from traffic counters along a state or city’s roads and automatically create reports for traffic engineers. (The duo used a computer at the University of Washington to do so.) “We ended up being okay successful, not seriously successful,” Gates later said in a 1993 interview with the Museum of American History. The State of Washington eventually offered free processing of the data for cities, which put an end to Traf-O-Data, but Allen and Gates both said the experience they gained with that company was critical when they decided to launch Microsoft.

    Travis Kalanick

    The third time was definitely the charm for Uber founder Kalanick. His first company, in the early 2000s, was Scour, a peer-to-peer file-sharing company. Before long, though, Scour faced a $250 billion copyright infringement suit from the entertainment industry and filed for bankruptcy. Next up was Red Swoosh, a content delivery network. That company struggled, but was eventually acquired in 2007 by Akamai Technologies. Two years later, Kalanick co-founded Uber, which revolutionized the transportation industry. Kalanick was forced out as CEO in 2017 after a series of workplace scandals revolving around a toxic work environment. These days, Kalanick is onto another venture, having acquired CloudKitchens, which provides commercial kitchen space to food delivery companies. He serves as CEO.

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    Chris Morris

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  • Here’s How LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman Says AI Needs to Be Regulated

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    Regulation can be good for technology, so long as it’s done thoughtfully, according to LinkedIn co-founder, investor, and AI-enthusiast Reid Hoffman. Speaking on the heels of a pitch event in San Francisco called Entrepreneurs First Demo Day, he compared AI regulation to seatbelts in vehicles.

    “Seatbelts are a good thing, relative to the fact that regulatory stuff can have a positive impact on society, technology evolution. Now doing it smart in the right way is important,” he tells Inc. “You don’t try to solve everything before you get on the road. You get on the road and then solve it as you go,” he adds. His voice joins a chorus of others from big names in tech speaking up about how much—or in the case of legendary investor Marc Andreessen and companies like Meta—how little regulation they support.

    Hoffman sits on the board of Entrepreneurs First, an international talent investment firm that hosts incubator-style programs and related annual pitch competitions. Those events are called Demo Days, and the most recent took place in San Francisco on Wednesday. Hoffman joined EF’s board after leading a significant round of investment in the company in 2017 through his capacity at venture capital firm Greylock Partners. 

    Hoffman was not on the ground at Demo Day this year, but another big name in tech was: Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark was the keynote speaker in conversation with Entrepreneurs First CEO Alice Bentinck. 

    Just a few days prior, Clark had made waves for commentary he gave at The Curve conference in Berkeley, California, and later published in essay form in his newsletter. He compared AI to a “mysterious creature” of humanity’s own creation. He said he was optimistic about its potential as well as appropriately afraid of it, especially if AI’s goals are not absolutely aligned with humanity’s. And finally, he ended by emphasizing the need for conversations with a broad swathe of society to help craft a “policy solution.”

    “There will surely be some crisis,” Clark notes in his blog. “We must be ready to meet that moment both with policy ideas, and with a pre-existing transparency regime which has been built by listening and responding to people.”

    In response to the post, U.S. AI and crypto czar David Sacks accused Anthropic of fearmongering. 

    Hoffman’s take, which he wrote about in his recent book, is by no means anti-regulation, but does differ somewhat from Clark’s. “In the book that I published in January, Superagency, part of what I was arguing for within AI is iterative deployment and development,” he tells Inc. “We do the regulatory thing, but we do it in response to what we can actually see versus imagination of what [could] happen,” he adds.

    AI has never been more topical, especially among aspiring entrepreneurs. This week at Demo Day in San Francisco, founders from 20 different startups pitched more than 200 tech investors, among them big name firms like a16z, Khosla Ventures, Paladin Capital, Insight Partners and Engine Ventures, in hopes of landing as much as $7 million in seed funding. It represented the culmination of some six months of work the founders had put in during Entrepreneurs First’s incubator-style program. On the lips of most of those entrepreneurs was AI.

    “The majority of the companies that were pitching yesterday—85 to 90 percent—are all using AI in some way. Some of them are building novel AI models, others are creating wrappers or scaffolding around existing AI models,” says Bentinck. “If you look at what early stage investors want to put capital behind, they see this enormous opportunity in the new AI economy.”

    Originally founded in London, Entrepreneurs First started off as a nonprofit in 2011 before becoming the investment vehicle it is today, starting in 2015. The company expanded overseas to offer programming in San Francisco at the start of 2024, and continues to run cohorts across Europe, India and the U.S.

    Entrepreneurs First functions something like an incubator, although Bentinck says EF thinks of itself more as a “talent investing studio.” It searches out individuals, usually with technical backgrounds, who also possess certain qualities related to pacing, productivity, determination, and even aggression, Bentinck says—qualities that alert EF that these individuals may outperform their peers. EF then guides them through the process of building a startup including helping them ideate if they don’t already have an idea and introducing them to potential co-founders.

    “We find exceptional individuals, pre-team, pre-idea, pre-company. Really all that we’re looking for is their entrepreneurial potential and then we run them through a process that helps them build a startup from scratch,” Bentinck says.

    The group that pitched this week included the top tier companies from EF’s European and U.S. programs. Each of these teams had been selected by EF and received $250,000 in pre-seed investment in exchange for 8 percent equity. 

    “That’s the culmination of EF and we then send them off into the wild to build enormous companies,” Bentinck says.

    Fast Company’s Mark Sullivan contributed reporting.

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    Chloe Aiello

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  • Where the ‘PayPal Mafia’ Is Today: Founders, Fortunes and Feuds

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    Peter Thiel, PayPal’s first CEO, turned his fintech fortune into a far-reaching empire of influence spanning venture capital, politics and power. Marco Bello/Getty Images

    In 2007, Fortune magazine reimagined a classic mafia scene with a Silicon Valley twist: 13 male founders and early employees of PayPal, all long gone from the company, posed at a San Francisco café with slicked-back hair, poker chips and dozens of whiskey glasses. The crowd included some of the most recognizable names in today’s tech scene, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. The magazine dubbed them the “PayPal mafia,” not for their time at the fintech company, but for their outsized impact on Silicon Valley through the companies they launched afterward.

    PayPal went public in early 2002 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion the same year. Most of its early employees left the company after the acquisition. They went on to found YouTube, SpaceX and LinkedIn, among other legendary names in Silicon Valley. However, like their cinematic namesake, the group hasn’t avoided controversy. These former colleagues have built billion-dollar businesses while also finding themselves in the crosshairs of public criticism.

    For instance, Thiel has faced controversy over his political affiliations and, most notably, for funding Hulk Hogan’s 2012 lawsuit against Gawker Media with $10 million — a case that ultimately drove the online media company into bankruptcy. Musk has also faced criticism for his takeover of Twitter and his prior role in the Trump administration, where he led widespread federal employee firings.

    Here’s what they are up to these days:

    Peter Thiel: venture capitalist 

    Peter Thiel speaking at the 2022 Bitcoin ConferencePeter Thiel speaking at the 2022 Bitcoin Conference
    Peter Thiel. Marco Bello/Getty Images

    Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek founded PayPal in 1998, originally as a software security company. After merging with Elon Musk’s X.com (unrelated to the social media platform he owns today), PayPal shifted its focus to digital payments.

    Thiel served as CEO from 1998 until 2002, leaving after the company was sold to eBay. He then co-founded Palantir Technologies, a major U.S. government contractor providing data analytics services. The company now has a market capitalization of $439 billion.

    Thiel is also known as a prolific angel investor. He co-founded Clarium Capital, Founders Fund, Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital. In 2004, Thiel became Facebook’s first outside investor after acquiring a 10.2 percent stake in the company for $500,000.

    Thiel is among the many former PayPal employees who have entered political and high-profile public arenas. An active donor to the Republican Party, Thiel supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign but withheld donations during the 2024 election. He is also credited with helping JD Vance reach the Vice Presidential ticket.

    Elon Musk: entrepreneur, the world’s richest person

    Elon Musk gesturing at a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House in May 2025. Elon Musk gesturing at a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House in May 2025.
    Elon Musk. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    Elon Musk briefly served as PayPal’s CEO before being ousted by the board in 2000. He went on to build one of the most influential portfolios in technology, spanning electric vehicles, space exploration, social media and A.I.

    Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has led Tesla since 2008. He also founded Neuralink and The Boring Company, expanding his reach into brain-computer interfaces and infrastructure. In 2022, Musk gained global attention for acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, later rebranding it as X.

    His ties to A.I. run deep: Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 but left in 2018 over strategic disagreements. In 2023, he returned to the field by launching xAI, a research venture focused on building A.I. that is more understandable for humans.

    Today, Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $400 billion. He is also perhaps the only PayPal alumnus to ascend into direct political influence. During the Trump administration, he led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a name shared with his cryptocurrency venture—before stepping down in May after clashing publicly with the President.

    Max Levchin: computer scientist 

    Max Levchin speaking at a FOX Network show in 2019.Max Levchin speaking at a FOX Network show in 2019.
    Max Levchin. John Lamparski/Getty Images
    • Position at PayPal: co-founder, chief technology officer from 1998 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Affirm
    • Net worth: $1.8 billion

    As PayPal’s chief technology officer, Max Levchin helped lead the company’s anti-fraud efforts by co-creating the Gausebeck-Levchin test—the foundation for the widely used CAPTCHA security tool. After leaving PayPal, he launched the media-sharing platform Slide in 2004, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Levchin briefly served as Google’s vice president of engineering until Slide was shut down the following year.

    In 2012, he co-founded Affirm, a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) company, where he continues to serve as CEO. Today, Affirm has a market capitalization of $27.5 billion, with 21.9 million consumers and more than 350,000 merchant partners on its platform.

    Levchin has also held board positions at Yahoo and Yelp. In 2015, he became the first Silicon Valley executive appointed to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory board, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between companies and regulators.

    Reid Hoffman: entrepreneur, investor

    Reid Hoffman speaking at event for WIRED's 30th anniversary.Reid Hoffman speaking at event for WIRED's 30th anniversary.
    Reid Hoffman. Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
    • Position at PayPal: chief operating officer
    • Companies later founded: LinkedIn, Greylock Partners
    • Net worth: $2.5 billion

    Before joining PayPal, Hoffman worked as a senior user experience architect at Apple, contributing to the company’s online social network eWorld. He later became director of product management at Fujitsu. After his online dating startup, SocialNet, folded, Hoffman joined PayPal in 2000 as chief operating officer.

    In 2003, he co-founded the career networking site LinkedIn. Following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2017, Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board, a move that greatly increased his wealth.

    Over the years, Hoffman has served on the boards of Airbnb and OpenAI, where he was also an early investor. Through the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, he has backed dozens of A.I. startups. In 2022, he co-founded Inflection AI with Mustafa Suleyman, who now serves as CEO. Earlier this year, he teamed up with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee to launch Manas AI, a startup focused on drug discovery.

    David Sacks: investor, White House A.I. and Crypto Czar

    David Sacks being photographed on a red carpet in Los Angeles.David Sacks being photographed on a red carpet in Los Angeles.
    David Sacks currently serves as the White House A.I. and Crypto Czar. JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
    • Position at PayPal: chief operating officer from 1999 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Craft Ventures
    • Net worth: $200 million

    Since leaving PayPal, David Sacks has built a career spanning film, tech, investing and politics. In 2005, he produced and financed a political satire that earned two Golden Globe nominations. The following year, he founded Geni.com, a genealogy-focused social network that later spun off Yammer, one of the earliest enterprise social networking platforms. He went on to co-found Craft Ventures, the startup Glue, and the podcast platform Callin.

    Today, Sacks serves as the White House’s Special Advisor for A.I. and Crypto, a role created by the Trump administration to guide policy on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

    Jeremy Stoppelman: engineer, Yelp CEO 

    • Position at PayPal: vice president of engineering
    • Companies later founded: Yelp
    • Net worth: $100 million

    Jeremy Stoppelman joined Musk’s X.com in 1999 and became vice president of engineering after its transition to PayPal. In 2004, he co-founded Yelp, where he has served as CEO ever since. Under his leadership, the company turned down a 2010 acquisition offer from Google and went public two years later. Stoppelman’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 million.

    Ken Howery: investor, U.S. ambassador

    • Position at PayPal: chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Founders Fund
    • Net worth: estimated $1.5 billion

    Ken Howery served as PayPal’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002. After PayPal’s sale to eBay, he became eBay’s director of corporate development until 2003. He later joined Peter Thiel at Clarium Capital as vice president of private equity and went on to co-found Founders Fund as a partner. Beyond investing, he is a member of the Explorers Club, a nonprofit dedicated to scientific exploration, and an advisor to Kiva, the micro-lending nonprofit founded by former PayPal colleague Premal Shah.

    Howery is also among the former PayPal executives who have moved into politics. He has donated at least $1 million to Donald Trump’s campaign through Elon Musk’s political action committee. During Trump’s first term, Howery was appointed U.S. ambassador to Sweden and today serves as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.

    Roeloth Botha: venture capitalist

    Roelof Botha joined PayPal as director of corporate development shortly before graduating from Stanford University. He later became vice president of finance and went on to serve as chief financial officer until the company’s acquisition by eBay.

    After leaving PayPal, Botha joined Sequoia Capital, where he oversaw investments in YouTube and Instagram. He currently sits on the boards of MongoDB, Evernote, Bird, Natera, Square, Unity and Xoom.

    Russel Simmons: entrepreneur 

    • Position at PayPal: software architect from 1998 to 2003
    • Companies later founded: Yelp, Learnirvana

    Russel Simmons helped design PayPal’s payment system as a software architect. After leaving the company, he and fellow PayPal alum Jeremy Stoppelman set out to build a platform for restaurant reviews. With a $1 million investment from Max Levchin, they launched Yelp in July 2004. Simmons served as chief technology officer until his departure in 2010. At the time, Yelp said he would remain a “significant” shareholder, though the size of his stake—and whether he still holds it—remains unclear.

    In 2014, Simmons co-founded Learnirvana, an online learning platform.

    Andrew McCormack: entrepreneur

    • Position at PayPal: assistant to Thiel from July 2001 to November 2002
    • Companies later founded: Valar Ventures

    Andrew McCormack began his career as an assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal and followed him into subsequent ventures. From November 2002 to April 2003, he oversaw operations at Thiel’s hedge fund, Clarium Capital.

    In 2010, McCormack co-founded Valar Ventures with Thiel and James Fitzgerald, focusing on fintech investments. He remains a general partner at the firm.

    Luke Nosek: investor 

    • Position at PayPal: co-founder and vice president of marketing and strategy from 1998 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Founders Fund, Gigafund

    In 2005, Luke Nosek joined Peter Thiel and Ken Howery to launch Founders Fund, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm that has backed companies such as Airbnb, Lyft and SpaceX. While his exact net worth is unclear, Nosek has made substantial investments through his venture firms. At Founders Fund, he led one of the firm’s earliest major deals with a $20 million investment in SpaceX, later serving on its board.

    In 2017, Nosek left to co-found Gigafund, which went on to invest $1 billion in SpaceX, according to the company. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.

    Premal Shah: entrepreneur 

    • Position at Paypal: product manager
    • Companies later founded: Kiva

    Three years after leaving PayPal, Premal Shah co-founded Kiva, a nonprofit that provides loans to entrepreneurs in underserved communities worldwide. He also serves on the boards of other nonprofits, including the Center for Humane Technology, the Change.org Foundation, Watsi and VolunteerMatch.

    Keith Rabois: investor

    • Position at PayPal: executive vice president of business development

    After leaving his executive role at PayPal, Keith Rabois became an active investor, backing companies including Slide, YouTube and Palantir. He also invested in LinkedIn, where he served as vice president of business and corporate development, and Square, where he was chief operating officer.

    Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures from 2013 to 2019 and was a partner at Founders Fund from 2019 to 2024.

    Where the ‘PayPal Mafia’ Is Today: Founders, Fortunes and Feuds

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    Irza Waraich

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  • LinkedIn founder criticizes Colorado’s new AI law in talk with Denver mayor

    LinkedIn founder criticizes Colorado’s new AI law in talk with Denver mayor

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    Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says Denver is “very much open for business” for artificial intelligence companies. Gov. Jared Polis shares the same goal for Colorado.

    But the state’s new artificial intelligence law could stop all that — at least according to Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and one of the biggest players in tech.

    The new state law will “prevent the future of software from being in Colorado, which doesn’t strike me as a particularly smart play,” Hoffman said on Thursday, referring to a bill that passed earlier this year.

    Hoffman made the comments as he was interviewed on stage by Mayor Johnston at the DenAI Summit, which is meant to position the city as a hub for AI. 

    Describing the new law as an “amorphous, poorly defined big accountability stick,” Hoffman said it would “quell investment” in AI.

    Colorado’s new law, SB24-205, requires companies to inform people when an AI system is being used, and, if someone thinks the technology has treated them unfairly, allows them to correct some of the input data or file a complaint. It won’t allow an individual to sue over AI use, but sets up a process to look into potential consequences for bad actors.

    The law will also require developers to examine AI algorithms for signs of bias, and it created a task force to work on AI issues. Proponents have said it’s important to establish protections and regulations as the technology’s use explodes.

    Mayor Mike Johnston speaks with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman during a DenAI Summit event at the Colorado Convention Center. Sept. 19, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    For his part, the mayor didn’t criticize the law. But he gave credit to “the community of business leaders here that rallied after that” to work on potential changes to the law. 

    Gov. Polis has also expressed concern about the new law stifling AI investment in Colorado saying he wanted to see a national approach instead. though he ultimately signed the bill. The new law is the first of its kind in the nation.

    “Whether (people) get insurance, or what the rate for their insurance is, or legal decisions or employment decisions, whether you get fired or hired, could be up to an AI algorithm,” said Democratic state Rep. Brianna Titone, one of the bill’s main sponsors, in an earlier interview with CPR News.

    The rest of Hoffman and Johnston’s discussion covered everything from how governments can use AI to improve transportation, public safety and pothole fixing, to the importance of experimenting with new technology, and how AI and autonomous vehicles might get drunk people home safely.

    It was a rare glimpse of the mayor interacting with Hoffman, a prime backer of Johnston who spent millions to support his election. It was also a taste of the mayor’s technology agenda.

    The pair spoke before a crowd of hundreds at the sold-out summit. Organizers said the one-day event at the Colorado Convention Center was the nation’s first “city-led conference focused on utilizing AI technology to solve hard social problems.”  

    The city did not contribute any money for the conference, and speakers weren’t compensated. 

    Here’s what else we heard.

    A crowd full of people seated at tables, watching something to the right, out of frame. They look either focused or bored.
    A crowd watches as Mayor Mike Johnston speaks with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman during a DenAI Summit event at the Colorado Convention Center. Sept. 19, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    AI won’t “be inclusive on Day One”

    Not everyone can afford AI technology, raising questions about whether its benefits will be equitably distributed. When the mayor asked about that, Hoffman cautioned people to not wait for perfection to begin using the tech. 

    It’s an “iterative process,” and it gets better with time, Hoffman said. “You’re not going to be able to be inclusive on Day One.”

    Instead, governments and the public should be in constant dialogue with the private sector about what is and isn’t working, creating specific guardrails rather than blanket prohibitions, the tech executive argued.

    Governments should “start playing with AI.”

    Hoffman said that both governments and people should start with experiments. For example, in an AI-powered city, residents could get faster responses to complaints about potholes, crimes and other issues. (Of course, AI can’t actually fill the potholes yet.) 

    Mayor Johnston suggested police officers, who spend hours writing reports, could minimize that task if body cameras were connected to technology that pre-writes reports that officers can approve. That would save time and add objectivity to criminal reports, he suggested.

    Hoffman cautioned the public not to just fret about how AI could challenge democracy, harm social ties and create a gap in equity. Instead, he advised: “Find the right people who want to create the future with you.”

    Johnston talked about the importance of “taking big swings,” referencing his own effort to reduce homelessness as an example.

    AI for traffic (and drunk people):

    With more than 40,000 people dying in traffic accidents each year, automated vehicles, empowered by AI, could make the roads safer, Hoffman said.

    “Drinking and driving goes from … an evil thing risking people’s lives to something you might do every day,” Hoffman said, referring to the idea that an autonomous car could get an inebriated person home safely.

    Johnston said it was another good example of how governments could work with the tech sector.

    “I think what we’re after is … pushing private sector innovators to think about ways in which you could tool build or innovate solutions that would have massive markets,” Johnston said.

    Government may lose trust if new tech fails.

    Johnston acknowledged that the public sector has a “different burden” when it takes risks in employing new technologies. “How do we communicate with the public to make them prepared for that?” he asked.

    Hoffman’s suggestion: Tech providers should agree to take the blame for problems with public-private AI endeavors, and they should be compensated for it.

    Ultimately, anybody who says they know where artificial intelligence will go in the next five years is either deluding themselves or deluding you, Hoffman said.

    As it turns out, we still can’t predict the future.

    A pair of crossed feet clad in brown leather cowboy boots.
    Mayor Mike Johnston wore cowboy boots to speak with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman during a DenAI Summit event at the Colorado Convention Center. Sept. 19, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

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  • Nvidia’s Billion-Dollar A.I. Pitch: How the Chip Giant Ramps Up Startup Bets

    Nvidia’s Billion-Dollar A.I. Pitch: How the Chip Giant Ramps Up Startup Bets

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    Jensen Huang prepares to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park on Sept. 03, 2024 in San Francisco. Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

    There’s no question that Nvidia (NVDA) is one of the biggest winners of the A.I. boom so far. Funneled by an insatiable demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs), the chipmaker’s stock has skyrocketed by more than 450 percent since early 2023. As Nvidia’s market cap and revenue soar, so does the pace of its investing in A.I. startups. More than half of the company’s startup investments since 2005 took place in the past two years.

    The value of the company’s startup investments reportedly totaled more than $1.5 billion at the beginning of 2024, a significant jump from the $300 million a year prior. The chipmaker has participated in more than ten $100 million-plus funding rounds for A.I. startups in 2024 alone, according to data from Crunchbase, and has backed more than 50 startups since 2023. That’s not to mention a flurry of activity from the company’s venture capital arm NVentures, which separately made 26 investments in 2023 and 2024.

    Nvidia’s seemingly unflappable upward trajectory took a hit yesterday (Sept. 3) after reports surfaced that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice as part of an antitrust probe. The company’s stock dropped nearly 10 percent, shaving $279 billion off its market cap, which currently stands at $2.6 trillion.

    But its falling stock price doesn’t mean the company is slowing down in its startup department. In addition to eyeing an investment in an upcoming funding round in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Nvidia yesterday unveiled its participation in a more than $100 million funding round for the Tokyo-based Sakana AI, a company that specializes in accessible A.I. models trained on small datasets.

    “We invest in these companies because they’re incredible at what they do,” Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang told Wired earlier this year. “These are some of the best minds in the world.”

    From companies specializing in humanoid robots to autonomous vehicles, here’s a look at some of Nvidia’s most significant startup investments:

    Perplexity AI

    Huang hasn’t been shy about his love for Perplexity AI, the A.I.-powered search engine positioned as a competitor to the likes of Google. The Nvidia CEO uses the startup’s tool nearly every day for research, according to Huang’s interview with Wired.

    He has also put his money where his mouth is, with Nvidia partaking in a $62.7 million funding round for Perplexity AI in April that valued the startup at $1 billion. Led by investor Daniel Gross, the round included participants like Amazon (AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos. It wasn’t the first time Nvidia has backed the company—the chipmaker also invested in Perplexity AI during another funding round in January that valued the startup at $73.6 million.

    Hugging Face

    Hugging Face, a startup providing open-source A.I. developer platforms, has long had close ties to Nvidia. The chipmaker participated in a $235 million funding round in Hugging Face in August 2023 that valued the company at $4.5 billion. Other corporate investors participating in the round included Google, Amazon, Intel, AMD and Salesforce.

    Hugging Face has previously included Nvidia hardware among its shared resources. In May, it launched a new program that donated $10 million worth of free, shared Nvidia GPUs to be used by A.I. developers.

    Adept AI

    Unlike more well-known A.I. assistants from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, Adept AI’s primary product doesn’t center around text or image generation. Instead, the startup is focused on building an assistant that can complete tasks on a computer, such as generating a report or navigating the web, and is able to use software tools. Nvidia is on board, having participated in a $350 million funding round in March 2023.

    Databricks

    After receiving a giant valuation of $43 billion last fall, Databricks became one of the world’s most valuable A.I. companies. The data analytics software provider unsurprisingly uses Nvidia’s GPUs and has been backed by the chipmaker alongside other investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Capital One Ventures, all of whom participated in a $500 million funding round in September 2023. “Databricks is doing incredible work with Nvidia technology to accelerate data processing and generative A.I. models,” said Huang in a statement at the time.

    Cohere

    A formidable opponent to OpenAI and Anthropic, the Canadian startup Cohere specializes in A.I. models for enterprises. The company’s growth over the past five years has attracted backers such as Nvidia, Salesforce and Cisco, which funded Cohere during a round held in July. Nvidia also took part in a May 2023 funding round that brought in some $270 million for the startup.

    Mistral AI

    Mistral AI is a French startup focusing on developing open-source A.I. models. It was founded by former Google DeepMind and Meta employees in April 2023. Nvidia has participated in two of the startup’s fundraising rounds, a $518 million round in June and a $426 million round in December 2023. The collaboration between the two companies doesn’t end there—in July, Nvidia and Mistral AI jointly released a small and accessible language model for developers.

    Figure

    Huang has long reiterated his belief that A.I.-powered robots able to work among humans will constitute the next wave of technology. It is, therefore, no surprise that Nvidia is a backer of Figure, a startup developing humanoid robots for use in warehouses, transportation and retail. Nvidia reportedly funneled $50 million towards the company during a February funding round that raised a total of $675 million and included participants like Bezos and Microsoft.

    Scale AI

    To properly train A.I. tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, tech companies need vast amounts of data. This is where A.I. startups like Scale AI, which provides troves of accurately labeled data and is headed by billionaire Alexandr Wang, come in. Nvidia participated in a $1 billion funding round for the company in May alongside Big Tech players like Amazon and Meta.

    Wayve

    Autonomous driving is another area of interest for A.I. leaders across the tech world. Huang himself said that “every single car, someday, will have to have autonomous capability” in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance. One of the startups at the forefront of this wave is the U.K.-based Wayve. Nvidia participated in a $1 billion funding round in the startup in May.

    Inflection AI

    Out of the 92 startups Nvidia has backed throughout the decades, Huang’s company has only been a lead investor in 20 rounds. One of these occurred in June 2023, when Nvidia led a staggering $1.3 billion round for Inflection AI. The chipmaker co-led the round alongside Microsoft, Bill Gates and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

    The A.I. startup, which was co-founded by LinkedIn (LNKD) co-founder Reid Hoffman and Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and most recently valued at $4 billion, produces a chatbot known as Pi. Much of the round’s funding went towards bolstering Inflection A.I.’s computing cluster of 22,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.

    Nvidia’s Billion-Dollar A.I. Pitch: How the Chip Giant Ramps Up Startup Bets

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Liberal Billionaire Gives Big Bucks to Nikki Haley In Bid to Defeat Trump

    Liberal Billionaire Gives Big Bucks to Nikki Haley In Bid to Defeat Trump

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    Life

    Screenshot YouTube : Good Morning America

    The fear liberal elites have of a second Donald Trump presidency is palpable. The Trump-phobia has reached a fever pitch, with influential, deep-pocketed Democrats publicly throwing support and privately writing big checks to one of the former President’s old allies turned competitor.

    GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is emerging as the top competition to Trump and racking in some serious donation dollars, which will undoubtedly be used to pummel Florida Governor and rival Ron DeSantis in a blitz of advertisements. Will the donations be enough to oust Governor DeSantis from the race, and more importantly, will the donations be enough to topple the Goliath that is Donald Trump?

    One Democrat mega-donor hopes the strategy will work; let’s look at one of Ms. Haley’s newest supporters from the left.

    For democracy!

    LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman has donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Nikki Haley in her bid to become the Republican nominee for President and, ultimately, the next Commander-in-Chief. Careful not to ditch his preferred choice for the White House, Mr. Hoffman wrote:

    “While I am a staunch supporter of Biden and hope he will win a second term, I also provided financial support to Nikki Haley’s super PAC even though some polls show Haley doing better than Trump in a general election against Biden.”

    It’s not the most resounding endorsement for President Joe Biden. Mr. Hoffman went on to explain how dire it is that someone, literally anyone other than former President Donald Trump, receives the Republican nomination:

    “I did so because my first priority is American democracy and the integrity of our legal system. That means my first priority is to defeat Trump, and the primary is the first of two chances to do so.”

    Thank God for billionaire patriots like Mr. Hoffman to stand between the half of America that supports Donald Trump and the fate of our nation’s future. He went on to write of Mr. Trump:

    “His campaign will be a campaign against American democracy and our rule of law system.”

    Someone could use a hug and perhaps an emotional support animal.

    Liberals supporting liberals

    The reaction from Team DeSantis upon the news of Mr. Hoffman’s sizeable donation was by far the best. Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said:

    “It makes perfect sense that liberal Democrat billionaires would support Nikki Haley’s bid for the White House, because she is a liberal.”

    Citing her penchant for unlimited military and financial aid to fight foreign wars, waffled positions on China, and her recent advocacy for stifling free speech on social media, Mr. Griffin had a good point. It can be hard to see daylight between Nikki Haley’s policy positions and those of the Democratic Party.

    RELATED: Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade Stunned By Poll Showing Trump, Haley Would Steamroll Biden

    This isn’t the first time Mr. Hoffman has thrown financial and public support behind a Republican. In 2022, he donated to Liz Cheney, who was and still is a fanatic hater of Donald Trump and whose political affiliation is questionable at best.

    The question remains: is this support for Nikki Haley a strategy to knock Donald Trump out of the primaries, or is this more a reality check from influential liberals that President Biden’s time is up and there is no other option other than the most liberal of the Republicans?

    Anybody but Trump

    Mr. Hoffman still claims to support Joe Biden in his bid for re-election, writing in the same post that explained his support for Nikki Haley:

    “In the 2024 election, I will enthusiastically vote for Joe Biden.”

    That had to be a hard sentence to write; enthusiasm and Biden are two concepts that don’t go well together – sort of like pairing polka dots with stripes, it just doesn’t work. Mr. Hoffman’s donation to Ms. Haley’s campaign came shortly after JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon begged liberals to throw their support behind her:

    “Even if you’re a very liberal Democrat, I urge you, help Nikki Haley, too. Get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump.”

    Mr. Dimon hedging his bets on the devil that might be better than the devil you know seems like a risky tactic, but isn’t considering that donating to Nikki Haley puts her snugly in the pockets of those billionaire donors on the off chance she makes it into the White House.

    Mr. Hoffman wrote:

    “Those of us who believe in America must link arms to block Donald Trump from regaining the White House.”

    RELATED: Vivek Ramaswamy Slams Nikki Haley: I’m the Only ‘Non-Neocon’ In The Race

    He went on to punctuate:

    “Nikki Haley would not be as good for America as Joe Biden, but America would survive her administration.”

    It sounds like the uber-rich left is starting to abandon hope in Uncle Joe and resigning themselves to a hopeful, pretty puppet in Nikki Haley.

    Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
    The Political Insider ranks #3 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Political Blogs and Websites.”

    USAF Retired, Bronze Star recipient, outspoken veteran advocate. Hot mess mom to two monsters and wife to equal parts Saint and Artist husband. Writer, lifelong conservative, lover of all things American History, and not-so-secret Ancient Aliens fanatic. Homeschool maven, Masters in Political Management, constitutionalist, and chock full of opinions.

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    Kathleen J. Anderson

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  • Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Building a City In Northern California | Entrepreneur

    Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Building a City In Northern California | Entrepreneur

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    For years, the identities of investors in large land purchases in Solano County, California have been shrouded in secrecy.

    Some government officials and residents believed the investment company, known as Flannery Associates, might even be a foreign entity planning nefarious activities or an amusement park, and asked the government to investigate.

    But the mystery was solved over the weekend when Flannery revealed that it was, in fact, backed by a number of high-profile Silicon Valley executives, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; former Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz; and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, and Lauren Powell Jobs, daughter or Steve Jobs, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

    Their grand plan is to turn the mostly agricultural area into an affordable and sustainable new city, according to Flannery representative Brian Brokaw.

    “We are proud to partner on a project that aims to deliver good-paying jobs, affordable housing, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, open space, and a healthy environment to residents of Solano County,” Brokaw said in a statement. “We are excited to start working with residents and elected officials, as well as with Travis Air Force Base, on making that happen.”

    Related: This Solar-Powered Florida Town Was Built to Withstand Hurricanes. Did It Work?

    Building a new city from scratch

    According to a report in The New York Times, Flannery has spent nearly $800 million over the past five years on land in Solano, which is 60 miles northeast of San Francisco and home to the Travis Air Force Base.

    They have methodically purchased large pieces of property from landowners, sometimes way above market value.

    The project is being quietly led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader with deep connections in the tech world. His vision is to take the arid rural land and transform it into a bustling urban community with tens of thousands of homes with clean energy.

    Some pushback from the community

    Not everyone has been excited by Flannery’s activity in the area. The Air Force had been investigating the company for months, and state representatives had also called for the National Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to investigate. A meeting has been called for next week.

    Meanwhile, there have been some contentious legal dealings in the area. In May, Flannery sued landowners in the area, accusing them of colluding to drive up real-estate prices. The case has left a sour taste in many’s mouths.

    “Flannery Associates has developed a very bad reputation in Solano County through their total secrecy and mistreatment of generational family farmers,” state representative John Garamendi Garamendi said in a statement.

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    Jonathan Small

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