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Theodore Schleifer

An expert investigative reporter and campaign-finance savant covering power, influence, and money at the intersection of Silicon Valley and Washington.

THE LATEST ARTICLES
NEWSLETTERS
Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley stands on stage during a break in the NBC News Republican Presidential Primary Debate on November 8, 2023, in Miami, Florida.
SILICON VALLEY • November 28, 2023
The G.O.P. Megadonors Come to Jesus
Fear is growing within the Republican billionaire class that the party’s moneymen have lost any ability to elevate an alternative to Trump. Why would things be different for Nikki Haley?
Former OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman speaks during an event at Keio University on June 12, 2023, in Tokyo.
SILICON VALLEY • November 21, 2023
Altman Alternative Facts
What Sam said at Stanford when confronted about ChatGPT. What people think of Sam’s effective-altruist board member Helen Toner. And what the hell happened at OpenAI.
Daniel Lurie has become something of a boundary-crossing, even contradictory, figure—between the haves and have-nots, the tech workers and the city’s true locals.
SILICON VALLEY • November 14, 2023
The Count of San Francisco
Daniel Lurie, the charming Levi Strauss heir running to be San Francisco’s next mayor, is ideally positioned to be the outrage vessel for the Pac Heights crowd. So why is Silicon Valley skeptical of his campaign?
Sam Altman has some eclectic views that don’t fit neatly into progressive dogma—but like most liberals in tech, he has been deeply unnerved by the real and growing threat of a second Donald Trump presidency.
SILICON VALLEY • November 7, 2023
President of the Biden-Skeptic Billionaires
Sam Altman, the OpenAI chief, has taken a profound interest in testing which Democrat could best challenge Trump in 2024. After talking with many of the party’s top operatives, he became convinced it was not Joe Biden. But… Dean Phillips?
There’s never been a defendant quite like Sam Bankman-Fried.
SILICON VALLEY • October 31, 2023
Sam I Am
The financial trial of the century is wrapping up the only way it ever could: with Sam Bankman-Fried betting big on himself.
Elon has developed a reputation among Republican fundraisers during his redpilled era as a political flirt.
SILICON VALLEY • October 24, 2023
The Elon-Vivek Sweepstakes & More Ellisonology
New dish on Musk’s budding presidential bromance, how Larry Ellison ghosted Tim Scott, and a new S.B.F. dark-money casualty.
The Rockbridge Network was co-founded by J.D. Vance and Chris Buskirk, the publisher of the pro-Trump journal American Greatness, in 2019.
SILICON VALLEY • October 17, 2023
Rockbridge Over Troubled Waters
The secretive, Trump-friendly, Silicon Valley-inflected donor alliance is less interested in the Republican primary than in redpilling techies into MAGA populism, hyping Tucker’s new mediaco, and moving millions to the G.O.P. grassroots—the latest effort to replace the Koch-era coalition with something younger and edgier.
Caroline Ellison’s testimony and cross-examination were two of the most jaw-dropping moments of the trial.
SILICON VALLEY • October 13, 2023
Caroline in My Mind
In the trial of S.B.F., the defense set out to blame Caroline Ellison, Sam’s former colleague-turned-paramour-turned-cooperating witness. Was this cross-examination really the best he could do?
Sometime in early November, we’ll get an answer to the biggest question of the trial: whether Sam Bankman-Fried testifies, himself, which might not be decided until fairly late in the process.
SILICON VALLEY • October 3, 2023
S.B.F.’s Expected Value Calculation
There are two reasons why Sam let this get to trial, and why he thinks he has a chance at a miraculous outcome. Plus: Reid Hoffman’s war against No Labels, and a new hire at Y Combinator.
SILICON VALLEY • September 26, 2023
S.B.F.’s McConnell Money Tickle, Part 2
As the trial of the century looms, three scoops shed new light on how Sam Bankman-Fried, and even former paramour Caroline Ellison, were part of the McConnell-DeSantis matrix.
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