Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post.
According to the Post, Andreessen described MIT and Stanford (which I attended two decades ago) as “mainly political lobbying operations fighting American innovation.” He also reportedly complained that Stanford “forced my wife out [as chair of its Center on Philanthropy and Civil society] without a second thought, a decision that will cost them something like $5 billion in future donations.”
In a separate message that did not mention a specific school, Andreessen reportedly said that universities “declared war on 70% of the country and now they’re going to pay the price.” He took aim at “DEI and immigration,” which he reportedly described as “two forms of discrimination” that are “politically lethal.”
Last year, Andreessen and his Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz both said that they were supporting Donald Trump’s campaign to return to the White House. Andreessen’s allies have subsequently taken roles in the Trump administration.
TechCrunch has reached out to a16z for comment. Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital has remained silent following partner Shaun Maguire’s criticism of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, as an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything.”