What Silicon Valley awaits from Kamala Harris
A survey of Silicon Valley venture capitalists who support Kamala Harris reveals what they expect from her if she wins. From the regulation of AI to immigration, through climate change and the right to abortion. All the details
The latest polls put her ahead of her opponent Donald Trump but the outcome of the race for the White House is far from certain. If the tycoon has Elon Musk and more on his side and his running mate JD Vance co-founded the Rockbridge Network organisation, financed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Kamala Harris also has a large group of supporters in the tech district.
Around 800 venture capitalists signed an open letter of support and 225 of them also detailed the reasons for their support for the Democratic candidate and the policies in their favour.
WHAT THE LATEST POLL SAY ABOUT KAMALA HARRIS
A new Reuters /Ipsos poll states that Harris is ahead of Trump with 45% of the vote against 41% for her Republican challenger, while for the WSJ the percentages would be 48% against 47%. According to Bloomberg+ , however, Harris's consensus is close if not above Trump's in all 7 key states for victory.
THE SURVEY AMONG SILICON VALLEY SUPPORTERS
225 Silicon Valley supporters anonymously participated in the internal survey of the support group VCs for Kamala , of whom 62% were men, 66% white and most aged between 35 and 64. Although not asked to provide party affiliation, among those who self-reported, 70% were Democrats and 30% were Republicans or independents.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CRYPTOCURRENCIES
The bread and butter of Silicon Valley is artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies and, therefore, for approximately 97% of those interviewed, leaders should be "experts" on the subject "to build effective regulations".
For investors and executives, Harris, a Californian with ties to Silicon Valley, has what it takes and is open to dialogue with the industry. As Tomorrow also wrote , if the Biden administration and the base of the Democratic party are quite severe with the technology giants, Harris has surrounded herself with experts from the tech district and in the past has never shown them particular hostility.
Additionally, nearly 92% believe the U.S. government needs to hire more tech talent. In fact, about 94% would like the United States to make more visas available for highly skilled people.
Silicon Valley is also asking for an easier path for startups that want to go public or sell to large operators.
HARRIS BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURS AND DEMOCRATS TO SATISFY
Reuters also interviewed entrepreneurs outside the scope of the survey and one of them, regarding AI, said: “We need the smartest people in government, who know what to do from a military and civilian perspective, that they know what is about to happen."
In fact, the United States does not yet have complete legislation on the matter and the issue is increasing divisions even within the Democrats. Among other things, a dem senator from California, Scott Wiener, is carrying on the battle for a bill , supported by Musk, but frowned upon by big names such as OpenAI, Google, Meta and also by dem representative Nancy Pelosi.
WHAT HARRIS AND TRUMP THINK THEY ARE DOING ABOUT AI
While neither U.S. presidential candidate has so far detailed the AI legislation he intends to pursue if elected, Trump has vowed to promote technology rooted in free speech and to reverse the order Biden's AI executive, which critics, including venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, say is too prescriptive on technical details.
Harris, if she wins, said she would position the United States as a world leader in AI and help “founders” access capital. A word that has not gone unnoticed in the sector. “He said 'founders.' I'm good,” Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud-storage company Box, joked on social media during his speech. For the New York Times , the specific use of this word was perceived by some as a message to reassure the wealthy corporate leaders of Silicon Valley.
TAXATION OF CARRIED INTEREST
One of the most divisive issues among those interviewed is the taxation of carried interest , i.e. that particular form of remuneration/extra income received by the management and/or employees of companies, entities or investment fund management companies deriving from the holding of financial instruments with strengthened property rights.
While many venture capitalists believe carried interest should be taxed as capital gains, 43.5% agree or strongly agree that it should be taxed as ordinary income.
In the meantime, however, the NYT writes that Harris' donors ( here is the list with the donation figures drawn up by Forbes ) are pushing her to reconsider support for a tax proposal on the richest Americans and some Wall Street and Silicon Valley executives are trying to reshape his government program.
FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
The belief that progressive climate change policy accelerates U.S. innovation is widely shared, with 95% of respondents agreeing that climate change policies are good for American businesses.
RIGHT TO ABORTION
Finally, exiting the labor camp, pro-Harris venture capitalists highlighted abortion rights among other priorities. In fact, almost all of those interviewed believe that it was a mistake for the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade and some believe this has hurt women in the workplace.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/cosa-attende-la-silicon-valley-da-kamala-harris/ on Sun, 01 Sep 2024 05:27:26 +0000.