The Washington Whisperers, and How to Read the Elon-Sergey Rift

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Good evening from San Francisco.

This past winter, we published Puck’s first highly scientific, totally indisputable power ranking of Silicon Valley donors. This summer, we’re back with more intel on the nine Democratic and five Republican kingmakers who matter in the tech industry. I’ll gladly take a commission on any fundraising pledges that today’s column generates in the form of a good news tip—my inbox is open.

But first, some news on the Silicon Valley media story of the week for Puck subscribers…

How to Read the Elon-Sergey Rift

I’ve gotten a lot of questions over the last 48 hours about the explosive story in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Elon Musk had an affair—or in peak WSJ-speak, a “liaison”—with Nicole Shanahan, who was then separating from Google co-founder Sergey Brin. (The two are now divorced.) Earlier this month, after all, Shanahan candidly offered me her first comments about the divorce, along with her post-nuptial philanthropic plans (if you missed it, catch up here). The alleged Elon relationship, obviously, never came up....

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The Washington Whisperers

As the midterms roil, it’s increasingly clear that Washington creatures are more than ever operating at the behest of Silicon Valley’s political class: Thiel and Conway, of course, but also S.B.F., Jan Koum, Ryan Salame, and a new crop of other budding mega-donors and mega-influencers.

TEDDY SCHLEIFER

On Saturday, Election Day will be just 100 days away—a rollicking final stretch of midterm campaigning that will determine who controls the Senate next year, and set the stage for the presidential race to come. What happens this fall—and in 2024—depends in part on the money game in Silicon Valley, where the tech mega-donors who were activated by Donald Trump in 2016 are still ruminating on just how involved they want to be going forward.

This winter, I published a Grantland-esque, highly scientific power ranking of these nine Democratic and five GOP players in Silicon Valley. Now, six months later, and after a wave of F.E.C. filings over the past week or two, I’m revisiting the ranking with an updated portrait of who’s up and down in donorworld. Or put another way, whose call should you return first?...

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