David Sacks

David Sacks is the most direct example of the donor-to-government-official pipeline in the current administration. A PayPal Mafia member, venture capitalist, and Trump mega-donor who hosted the fundraiser that raised $12 million in a single night in San Francisco, Sacks was rewarded with appointment as the White House's AI and Crypto Czar — a role that gives him direct regulatory authority over the exact technologies his venture fund, Craft Ventures, invests in. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1972, Sacks emigrated to the United States, attended Stanford, and joined PayPal as its first COO. He co-authored "The Diversity Myth" with Peter Thiel at Stanford, critiquing multiculturalism — a book that foreshadowed both men's later political evolution. After PayPal's sale to eBay, Sacks founded Geni.com and Yammer (sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012), then launched Craft Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture firm focused on early-stage tech companies. Craft Ventures has made significant investments in crypto companies, AI startups, and enterprise software. When the Biden administration's SEC began aggressively regulating crypto — suing exchanges, classifying tokens as securities, and launching enforcement actions — it threatened a substantial portion of Craft's portfolio. Sacks became one of the most vocal Silicon Valley critics of the Biden administration, using his popular podcast "All-In" (alongside fellow tech figures Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and Andreessen ally Brad Gerstner) to broadcast anti-regulation, pro-Trump messaging to millions of tech workers. In June 2024, Sacks hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his San Francisco home that raised $12 million — a watershed moment that signaled Silicon Valley's political realignment. He donated $10 million directly to Trump-aligned causes and became one of the campaign's most effective surrogates in the tech world. The appointment as AI and Crypto Czar was the payoff. In this role, Sacks advises the president on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy — the two sectors where Craft Ventures has its most concentrated bets. He is, quite literally, the person who will shape the regulatory environment for his own investments. When the administration announced a more permissive approach to crypto regulation, Craft Ventures' portfolio companies stood to benefit directly. Sacks's allies dismiss the conflict-of-interest concerns as overblown, arguing that you need people who understand technology to regulate it. His critics counter that there's a difference between understanding technology and profiting from its deregulation while in government. The PayPal Mafia connection makes it even more remarkable: Musk runs DOGE, Thiel's protégé Vance is VP, and Sacks runs AI/crypto policy. Three members of a single corporate alumni network now occupy some of the most powerful positions in the U.S. government, each with financial interests that align with their policy portfolios.