Mission Local26%
After tough primary loss, some Silicon Valley donors regroup to back Becerra for governor 50%
By Brandon Pho44%
7/21/2026, 12:00:00 PM
Keywords: Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Garry Tan, Evan Spiegel, Rick Caruso, Ron Conway, Lisa Pritzker, John Pritzker, Instacart, Netflix, Reed Hastings, Meta, Uber, Anthropic, Openai, Joe Lonsdale, Palmer Luckey, Anduril Industries, Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Steve Hilton, Baiju Bhatt, Vlad Tenev, Robinhood, California Governor, Silicon Valley, Tech Billionaires, Political Donations, Election Funding
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Anchoring Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Hasty Generalization, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 20.4% saturation with 138 hits. Analysis detected 1,326 faulty-reasoning hits from 678 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 50.2% and a BS Rank of 50% (10,995 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 50.20% of the article peer group.
The instant he announced, Silicon Valley companies and moguls championed San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s bid for California governor in the June primary.
But even with $15 million behind him, Mahan sputtered in sixth place.
Now, some of his backers are regrouping around a new favorite.
Former U.S.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has seen tens of thousands of dollars come into his campaign coffers from early Mahan backers, including YCombinator CEO Garry Tan and Snap, Inc. co-founder Evan Spiegel.
Each gave the maximum allowed, $39,200, on June 26.
Becerra’s also now getting support from Los Angeles billionaire real estate mogul Rick Caruso, who backed Mahan in the primary; Caruso also gave the $39,200 maximum, on June 30.
“Politics is a long-term commitment, not a one-cycle effort,” Tan said in a statement provided by a spokesperson.
“Success comes from listening, building coalitions, and staying engaged beyond election day and throughout the year.
The tech sector will continue to grow politically and continue to contribute.”
The filings also show Becerra received more than $235,000 after the primary from billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway and several of his family members.
Conway had not donated to Mahan in the primary, but he long supported Mahan’s business ventures and political career in San Jose over the years.
The reason for Silicon Valley’s turn is “pretty simple,” said Rich Robinson, a veteran California political strategist: “Xavier is gonna be the winner.
Get on the train now.”
“They’re trying to make up for the fact they were with Mahan and don’t want to be shut out of the Becerra administration,” added Robinson, who worked on the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton.
Lisa Pritzker, the ex-wife of billionaire investor John Pritzker, gave $39,200 to Becerra on June 15; John Pritzker had previously backed Mahan by giving $500,000 to a third party political action committee.
The company behind the online grocery delivery app Instacart has also backed Becerra directly with a $39,200 donation.
Instacart had previously contributed $25,000 to a third party committee that spent in support of Mahan.
Some in the tech world had stock in Becerra before the primary results.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had donated both to Becerra and Mahan before the San Jose mayor’s primary defeat.
Meta gave $245,000 to a pro-Becerra committee on May 29, while Uber gave $1 million to the same group seven days earlier.
A number of employees at Anthropic, the artificial intelligence giant and direct competitor to OpenAI, have also gone big on Becerra.
Recent filings show they gave at least $255,000 to him directly, since the June primary alone.
“These are savvy investors,” said Eric Jaye, who was Mahan’s top strategist before parting ways with the campaign before the primary.
“They know Becerra is going to win — and that in California, the very best Republican can’t beat the worst Democrat.”
That’s not to say the tech world has been unified in the race, or putting its eggs in one basket.
Take Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, for example, an early Mahan backer.
One of his key business partners, Palmer Luckey — who also founded Anduril Industries, a defense tech company that saw major backing from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund — made a $39,200 donation to Republican Steve Hilton on the day of the primary.
Or Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, the co-founders of the Menlo Park-based stock trading app Robinhood.
Bhatt gave $39,200 to Steve Hilton on June 1.
Tenev gave $250,000 to an outside committee supporting Becerra two days later.
“These folks are not conservative or liberal — they support anyone who supports them,” Robinson said.
“They don’t care if it’s left or right, so long as it’s pro-Silicon Valley, pro-AI, pro-housing.
And they’ll have to learn that money itself is not going to win an election, especially California.”
Mahan, for his part, has yet to make an endorsement in the race.
Neither he nor a spokesperson returned a request for comment.
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