The Blue Wave hits Sand Hill Road

Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk Finn Gomez/Getty Images Ben here. VCs are paid to predict the future and bet on the right people, so the wager by some VCs to go all in on MAGA now looks like a bad bet after Tuesday's overwhelming Democratic victory.On X, owned, of course, by GOP megadonor Elon Musk, there were lots of quips about returning to an era of DEI, pronouns, and land acknowledgments.On Wednesday morning, some of the loudest VC voices on the right, such as a16z's Marc Andreessen and Craft's David Sacks, who also served as the White House's AI and crypto czar, were remarkably quiet.Those on the left have been much more talkative, eager to point out that they never joined the MAGA bandwagon.Remember when all the VCs in Silicon Valley endorsed Trump and said he “made sense”? Quite stupid.Yeah, I wasn’t one of them.— Darian Shirazi (@darian314) November 4, 2026 I asked Reid Hoffman, investor and cofounder of LinkedIn, who donated nearly $40 million this cycle, what message the results send to VCs."Voters rejected the status quo, and VCs should take that seriously," Hoffman told me. "Because some very notable and wealthy tech figures have so publicly supported the Administration as they've harmed Americans, tech's brand has lost massive amounts of trust. VCs should rethink their assumptions about how most Americans are experiencing this economy."AI data centers emerged as one of the top villains in this election. Now Goldman Sachs is estimating nearly half of planned US data-center capacity could be affected by election results in Texas and elsewhere. That's a lot!One VC told me it's hard to see how that wouldn't affect startup valuations for everyone from OpenAI to smaller neolabs."They will have trouble finding compute," he said. "This election result is definitely going to affect the AI economy." There was at least one bright spot for Silicon Valley's biggest political spenders. California's billionaire tax, opposed by John Doerr, Vinod Khosla, Ron Conway, Peter Thiel, and many others, looks headed for defeat, according to election results in the state.Still, most VCs, and especially founders, would rather not talk politics. They see it as an unwelcome distraction from the far more immediate business of product launches, fundraising, and hiring.I felt that disconnect yesterday: I couldn't stop thinking about the election, while nearly every investor or founder I spoke with wanted to talk about their latest release or upcoming round. That is still the reality on the ground in San Francisco, outside a small but increasingly influential group of investors who have chosen to wade into politics.Seeing all the posts from VCs during this election made me think of what an LP who has backed many prominent VC funds told me during the 2024 presidential race."I've always wanted our VCs to just shut their mouths and do their job and not be political unless they're defending the startup ecosystem," he said. "Other than that, they shouldn't be posturing for a political candidate."VCs staying quiet? Good luck with that.The Buzz Sequoia Capital offices in Menlo Park, California Josh Edelson/Bloomberg via Getty Images Katie here. While everyone was distracted by the election results, Sequoia Capital announced several major developments: No more London office! No more Scout program! And no more Monday partner meetings, which a person familiar with the firm's thinking told me was so it could move fast and make decisions quickly.Sequoia is often seen as setting the tone for the industry, so this gained a bit of attention on social media.The firm says it will still make bets in Europe, but many in the continent's startup scene were trying to make sense of what this means for the ecosystem.Victor Riparbelli, CEO and cofounder of UK-based startup Synthesia, posted on X that "the sad reality is there just aren't enough deals in Europe to justify an office here."Ann Bordetsky, a board partner at NEA and head of business development at Factory, had a different perspective. "Everyone's missing the real story in this Sequoia memo," she posted on X. "It's not the London office. You can win European founders in San Francisco because the companies are global from day 1. It's the no more MONDAY meetings, 24x7 deal cycle and decisions moving with the market rather than holding on to dated VC traditions, bravo."Post of the weekif data centers are harder to buildshort term:winners: Equinix/Digital Realty (scarcity)losers: Nvidia/AMD/Vertiv/Oracle (less buildout)long term:winners: Google/Amazon/Microsoft (moats), SpaceX (orbital?)losers: Ant/OpenAI/other AI startups (pricier compute)wdyt?— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) November 4, 2026 Around the Cap TableNominate an investor here for our annual Rising Stars of VC list!SoftBank-backed Nigerian fintech Opay almost went public at a $4 billion valuation, then canceled the IPO.Agility Robotics is taking humanoid robots public in a first for Wall Street.Jake Storm joins Headline as general partner. He was previously a GP at Felicis.Blackstone told investors Anthropic might not receive an investment-grade rating after IPOPlease let us know what you think of the newsletter and send along your tips. Email Ben or Katie anytime or contact them on Signal at benbergman.11 and kroof.26. Email us at vcinsider@businessinsider.com I'm chief correspondent at Business Insider, where I cover the tech industry with a focus on venture capital and startups. I'm the co-author of VC Insider, a new newsletter on the deals, drama, and people moving billions in Silicon Valley.I can frequently be seen on CNN and other channels providing analysis on a range of business and economic topics. I also appear often at dozens of the biggest events around the world, including the World Economic Forum, HumanX, and Web Summit.Please get in touch if you have a story to tell. For tips (not pitches), you can message me securely on Signal @BenBergman.11Previously, I was a senior reporter at LAist/Southern California Public Radio, where I covered business and economics. I have also written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review and was a reporting intern at The Times. I started my career as a producer for NPR's Morning Edition and also produced award-winning documentaries for public television.I spent the 2017-2018 academic year at Columbia Business School as a Knight-Bagehot fellow. After that, I oversaw the development of The Journal, a daily podcast produced by The Wall Street Journal and Gimlet Media.Originally from Seattle, I graduated cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles with a degree in politics.In my free time, I love skiing, tennis, poker, and cheering on the Seattle Seahawks. I competed in the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event but sadly did not win. Katie is Editor at Large for Business Insider and also a Global Reporter for the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, working with sister publications including Politico and The Telegraph. She has been a frequent television commentator and on-stage moderator. She is an LA Press Club award winner for her reporting on SpaceX and has broken more than 1,000 stories, which also earned her the TBPN accolade "scoop athlete of the century." Politics Elections Democrats More Newsletters Venture Capital Newsletter Silicon Valley