“Startup culture may be great for putting out a new app or building a successful company, but not for distributing tens of millions of people’s benefits. Real people with real interests are at stake,” says Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Elections and Government Program.
In other words, when it comes to the general public, ‘move fast and break things’ isn’t exactly popular. But that Silicon Valley culture continues to seep into policy as tech billionaires expand their influence in Washington, making these tensions harder to ignore. Elon Musk spent nearly $300 million to elect Donald Trump, and now holds sway over the federal agencies that regulate his businesses and award government contracts. And he’s not alone. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Palmer Luckey have also built powerful networks that now reach deep into policymaking circles.
Musk’s companies, including SpaceX and xAI, along with Thiel’s Palantir and Luckey’s Anduril, have secured more than $6 billion in federal deals, all while helping shape the rules of the game from the inside.
Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and Weiner break down what this means for startups, innovation, and democracy.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
- How SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril leveraged insider networks to win major defense deals.
- Changing ethics safeguards, and why that matters for founders entering government spaces.
- What this all means for fair competition and startups trying to break in.
Equity will be back Friday with our weekly news round-up. Don’t miss it!
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.
Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.
Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch, where she covers Tesla and Elon Musk’s broader empire, autonomy, AI, electrification, gig work platforms, Big Tech regulatory scrutiny, and more. She’s one of the co-hosts of the Equity podcast and writes the TechCrunch Daily morning newsletter.
Previously, she covered social media for Forbes.com, and her work has appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, i-D (Vice) and more.
Rebecca has invested in Ethereum.
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University.