Trump heads to tech fundraiser in San Francisco, with some guests paying $300,000

A pair of tech investors and podcasters are hosting Donald Trump on Thursday for a high-profile fundraiser in San Francisco, the latest sign that an industry once hostile to the former president has warmed to the Republican candidate.

David Sacks, a prominent venture capitalist and part of the "PayPal mafia," is holding the fundraiser at his Pacific Heights residence. Tickets sold for $50,000 a head, with a $300,000 tier that includes perks like a photo with Trump. It comes a week after Trump was convicted in New York of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The co-host is Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of investment firm Social Capital who is known on Wall Street for promoting special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) during the tech boom in 2020 and 2021. Sacks and Palihapitiya are two of the four hosts of the popular All-In podcast.

The event sold out and is expected to raise $12 million for Trump. Sacks declined to comment. Palihapitiya didn't return requests for comment by the time of publication.

The fundraiser in the heart of the tech capital represents a growing shift in sentiment toward Trump, especially in what's been historically a liberal stronghold. Though Sacks has long been a conservative, he donated to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. In recent years, he's thrown his support behind the Republican party and started publicly backing Trump when it was clear he'd be the Republican nominee. Palihapitiya donated more than $250,000 to Biden in 2020, according to campaign records. 

"I know there's going to be a lot of people who support Trump, but they don't want to admit it," Sacks said on the podcast last week. "And I think that