#marc andreessen

Jack Winstanley and Hanne MacDonald at MMFA:

As novel AI tools continue to emerge and massive data center construction projects generate local and national controversy, right-wing media are divided over the impacts of the technology and the infrastructure that supports it. Some right-wing figures have been critical of AI, arguing it poses an “existential threat” to civilization and that data centers “deserve the rap they’re getting.” Others have championed continued growth of AI and data center construction, claiming that “data centers are good for society, good for the economy” and downplaying concerns that people living near them “might have to put on some earmuffs” or “might have to move.” 

Trump administration takes steps to regulate AI as the technology comes under scrutiny

On June 2, President Donald Trump signed an executive order asking companies to provide the government with early access to new AI models before they launch to assess them for cybersecurity risks. The executive order came after the Department of Defense’s showdown with Anthropic, which has been blacklisted by the Pentagon over security concerns, and the release of the company's Mythos product, which was explicitly marketed to exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities. [CNN, 6/2/26; White House, 6/2/26; Anthropic, 4/7/26]

Trump initially delayed signing the executive order, citing fears that it would impede U.S. competitiveness. The delay, which reportedly followed a call from former White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks, also coincided with splits within the administration over the extent to which the federal government should be stepping in to regulate AI models. Sacks reportedly advocated an anti-regulatory stance while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “pushing for greater barriers to Mythos-type models.” [NBC News, 5/21/26; Politico, 5/28/26; Bloomberg, 12/6/24]

On June 12, the Trump administration imposed export controls on Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos models, citing “national security authority.” Politico reports that the administration's move came after “tense calls” between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and administration officials who could not come to an agreement on how to remedy the White House's concerns. [Politico, 6/13/26]

Data centers are facing widespread backlash across the country — including Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary’s formerly planned 40,000-acre data center project in Utah — with some localities even prohibiting their construction. The rapid growth of data centers has angered residents across Utah. A coalition of groups in New Jersey have petitioned the governor to pause all data center projects due to their impacts on residents and the environment. Denver’s city council approved a one-year moratorium on new data center projects following public pushback. And, backlash against data centers has also begun to emerge in the Make America Healthy Again coalition, with one MAHA media figure calling the continued construction of data centers “not compatible with the promise to Make America Healthy Again.” [Fortune, 5/11/26; Inside Climate News, 5/14/26; NewJersey.com, 5/17/26; Axios Denver, 5/18/26; Media Matters, 6/10/26]

Amid the growing data center backlash, right-wing media personalities have had mixed reactions, with some suggesting that China is behind the protests, while others have admitted that “a lot of the opposition is grassroots.” In one Fox Business appearance, O’Leary stated that “the Communist government of China is undermining the U.S. by fueling anti-AI data center protests.” Fox News later made on-air apologies for O'Leary's claim, noting there was “no evidence” and that Fox News “apologizes for the error.” [Media Matters, 6/10/26; Business Insider, 6/29/26]

Calls for regulation around AI have been brewing within the MAGA camp, with an open-letter signed by over 60 “loyal allies of President Trump,” including Steve Bannon, urging government security testing and approval of AI models. In the past year, several other open letters calling for limits or regulations on AI development were directed toward the administration. At least two were co-signed by Bannon, and at least one was signed by conservative media personality Glenn Beck. [Axios, 5/18/26; NBC News, 3/4/26; Time, 10/22/25]

[a scottish castle with a 4 foot fence] JK Rowling: finally! Rowling: after yearss of sstruggle, i have achieved my life goal Rowling: to be the final arbiter of lesssbianisssm Rowling: i'm not gonna let some uppity lessbianss tell me what they are!

Rowling: but what'ss next for JK Rowling? Kathleen Stock: dark lord, its time for a new era in evil Stock: it's time to pivot to racism Rowling: a brilliant gambit! no one will sssee it coming! Rowling: well actually i think everyone ssaw it coming Rowling: but still

Stock: it's time to hang up my larynx measuring calipers Stock: and bring back my skull measuring calipers! Stock: [caressing calipers] oh Pinchy, how i've missed you! Stock: no one's every gonna take you away from me again!

Stock: anyway it's not racist to say that black people have a special extra muscle in their legs that makes them good at crime Rowling: excussse me i'm getting a phone call Graham Linehan: dark lord! it's me! your best friend graham linehan!!! Rowling: shit

Linehan: i, your most loyal minion, urgently request your help post haste!!! Linehan: have i not served you faithfully these many many years?? Rowling: Rowling: how did you get this number

Linehan: i've been framed by the famously pro-trans british police! Linehan: as we all know, there's no greater friend to the trans community in this country than the police Linehan: that's why they're so always so welcome at Pride

Linehan: sempai notice me! Rowling: Linehan: sempai! Linehan: sempai! Linehan: sempai notice me! Linehan: sempai!! Rowling: [quietly disconnects]

Rowling: ugh thisss ssuckss Rowling: i should be assssociating with the real upper crussst Rowling: i mean, i'm sssuper rich AND ssuper transsphobic Rowling: why am i not in any of those evil billionaire ssignal chatss?

[evil billionaire signal chat] Marc Andreessen: hello this is the signal chat for evil billionaires with perfectly egg-shaped heads

Andreessen: have you ever seen such a perfectly egg shaped head as i? Andreessen: i maintain Andreessen: you have not Tyler Winklevoss: does anyone want to buy an ape? Winklevoss: anyone?

Erik Torenberg: oh man marc andreessen is so smart Tyler Winklevoss: he's the smartest Tucker Carlson: no man with such a perfectly egg shaped head could be dumb Carlson: my calipers wouldn't lie to me at a time like this

Andreessen: hey does anyone else here hate woke Torenberg: yes Carlson: yes Winklevoss: yes Andreessen: does anyone else here hate pluralistic democracy Andreessen: maintain low tones!!!

The Trump administration’s gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been good for venture capitalists like Andreessen, who previously accused the agency of “terrorizing” fintech startups and crypto companies.

by Jake Pearson

November 5, 2025, 5:30 am

For more than a decade, Silicon Valley venture capitalists have poured enormous sums of money into newfangled technology companies seeking to disrupt, and even supplant, the traditional financial system and sidestep its burdensome regulations.

At the same time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has policed that effort, going after such businesses for deceiving, overcharging or otherwise taking advantage of their customers by enacting rules, filing lawsuits and shutting down the worst offenders. 

This cat-and-mouse game has long rankled tech leaders, but it has especially irritated Marc Andreessen, one of America’s most well-known investors and an outsize figure in the so-called fintech industry. 

His firm has seeded eight companies since 2016 that landed in the crosshairs of the small watchdog agency that Congress created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect vulnerable consumers from exploitation, according to court records, agency documents and interviews with people familiar with the matters. Some of those inquiries have resulted in consent orders, fines and, for one company, a lifetime industry ban.

The CFPB exists to “terrorize finance, terrorize financial institutions, prevent fintech, prevent new competition, new startups that want to compete with the big banks,” Andreessen told podcaster Joe Rogan last year, invoking the agency as an example of government bloat ripe for the carving.

Of particular concern to Andreessen was federal regulators’ targeting of the freewheeling crypto industry under President Joe Biden — an effort that legal experts said would have planted a costly roadblock in the path of several companies’ rapid growth. The investor’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, told the CFPB last year it planned to put more than $7 billion in crypto funds. So in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, the longtime Democrat shifted his allegiance to Donald Trump, donating more than $5 million to groups supporting the Republican candidate, and even volunteered to help Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. 

Venture Capital’s Plan for the Presidency

[text compressed by me to summarize]

A small group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists – most prominent among them Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk – have compromised and captured America’s highest offices. JD Vance, the vice president, is a venture capitalist funded by Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen. These parties funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into the election through personal donations and crypto super PACs, as well as the $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter also had backing from Andreessen Horowitz and Larry Ellison.

Most of the people backing Trump and JD Vance from the venture capital world are associated with Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Founders Fund (Peter Thiel’s VC firm), and the PayPal Mafia. These venture capitalists have been heavily investing in two major, broad-ranging political programs over the past two and a half years: American Dynamism, and the Network State. It is these political agendas that will be foremost in their influence over the election and the presidency itself. It is these programs that motivate their engagement in the democracy and answer the question: what do they want? 

American Dynamism 

American Dynamism is a political platform from a16z, joined by Founders Fund, that views America as falling/failed, and proposes a plan for getting it “back on track” by handing large parts of the country over to venture capital, while re-assuming its competitive and military leadership of the world through venture capital-led weapons startups. A new military build-out is central to the plan.

The Network State

It’s a libertarian commonplace, a version of their pinched vision of why the market and only the market is the truly legitimate response to oppressive conditions on the job: If you don’t like it, you can leave. If you don’t, what you suffer is your own fault.

I brought up the ordinary comforts of kinship, friendship, craft, memory, legend, lore, skills passed down across generations, and other benefits that small towns provide: things that make human beings human beings. I pointed out that there must be something in the kind of places he grew up in worth preserving. I dared venture that it is always worth mourning when a venerable human community passes from the Earth; that maybe people are more than just figures finding their proper price on the balance sheet of life …

And that’s when the man in the castle with the seven fireplaces said it.

The AI-ick:

“We [a16z] believe Artificial Intelligence is our alchemy, our Philosopher’s Stone—we are literally making sand think,” he says. “We believe any deceleration of AI will cost lives. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder.”

BYTE March 1997