A famous Silicon Valley startup factory says it won't fire investor Peter Thiel for supporting Trump
Over the weekend, news broke that Thiel, a part-time partner at Y Combinator and member of Facebook's board, is donating $1.25 million (£1 million) to the Republican nominee's for president, even as Trump battles multiple allegations of sexual misconduct following the publication of a recording in which he bragged about groping women without their consent.
While the tech industry has long had liberal leanings, Trump's divisive rhetoric has alienated even long-time Republican donors like HP's Met Whitman, making open Trump supporters in Silicon Valley a rarity.
But Peter Thiel, an outspoken libertarian, is known for his unconventional political views. He wants to live forever, is an advocate of "sea-steading" (basically creating floating islands free from any country's laws), and once wrote an article arguing that giving women the right to vote damaged democracy.
His support for Donald Trump has been known for some time: He acted as a delegate for the reality TV show in the primaries, and spoke at the Republican National Convention where Trump was formally chosen as the party's nominee for president.
In recent days there had been speculation as to whether Thiel was continuing to support Trump - but this has been put to rest with the news of his $1.25 million donation, first reported by The New York Times.
Thiel, a cofounder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook, is also a part-time partner at Y Combinator - a startup accelerator and investment fund. Some in the industry have called on Y Combinator to part ways with the billionaire investor - but president Sam Altman is refusing, while making clear that he personally finds Trump's views abhorrent.
"Thiel is a high profile supporter of Trump. I disagree with this. YC is not going to fire someone for supporting a major party nominee ... We need to talk to each other more, not less. Most people think roughly half the country is severely misguided. Cutting off opposing viewpoints leads to extremism and will not get us the country we want."
An official blogpost from Y Combinator on the subject is coming soon, Altman says.
Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, put forward a similar position to Altman's last week. "Peter is eccentric, but earnest. He seems to have a blind spot about Trump's character, but he is no surrogate," he tweeted. "Do you mean YC should cut ties to Peter because of his political views? It seems to me that's the sort of thing we're fighting against."
Not everyone seems satisfied with Altman's defence of continuing to work with Thiel. "You're hearing "disgusting" when I'm saying 'existential threat,'" Erica Joy, an engineer at Slack, said in a tweet Altman subsequently retweeted. "I'm not just disgusted, I'm scared for the lives of me and mine."