It’s generally understood that major players in the financial world invest some amount of their wealth in funding political candidates who might be supportive of their values. The exact amount donated by any particular billionaire is often a difficult figure to uncover, as most financial moguls are tight-lipped about such spending, and money frequently changes hands through shady means involving think tanks and nonprofit foundations.
In yet another example of breaking with what is expected, FTX founder and crypto multibillionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has gone public with how much he plans to spend in the 2024 election cycle. That candor in itself would be newsworthy; it’s all the more striking given the record-breaking size of Democratic supporter Bankman-Fried’s planned donation amount.
“I would guess north of $100 million. As for how much more than that, I don’t know,” said Bankman-Fried on the podcast “What’s Your Problem.” Pressed on that number, the billionaire elaborated, saying that $1 billion would be “a decent thing to look at as a — I would hate to say hard ceiling, because who knows what’s going to happen between now and then — but at least sort of as a soft ceiling.”
