Chris Larsen

Donors include CVS, a foundation for Blue Shield, and Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company testing robo taxis in San Francisco and other California cities.

Newsom also sought money from the lefty dark money group New Venture Fund and crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.

Other notable contributors are foundations linked to wealthy philanthropists Susie Tompkins Buell and Lisa Stone Pritzker, both of whom have helped bankroll Newsom's political activities and propped up his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofits.

Beyond the Protocol Foundation, federal investigators have also been looking into Siebel Newsom's taxes, a source with knowledge of the matter previously told the Post.

Okay, before we go, Guy, we had big money dropped into one of the district supervisor races here, which frankly we wouldn't normally talk about, but it was just so eye-popping we wanted to mention it.

Chris Larson, he's a billionaire.

He made his money in crypto at Ripple.

Big Democratic donor, one of the tech guys who, you know, billionaires who has really not gone right under Trump.

There's there's two, you know, in some of these races, there'll be two Democrats running against each other.

And maybe that kind of outside money takes on more of a narrative.

I think about Marin, the 12th Assembly District, where Eric Lucan, he's the more moderate he's getting, you know, has gotten outside support from Chris Larson running against Jackie Elward, who's the labor candidate.

Like, does that in itself become an issue when you're getting down to just two candidates in a general election?

He's put $100 million into killing this.

Uh, up in San Francisco, there's a crypto billionaire named Chris Larsen who is funding candidates for city supervisor and getting involved in ballot initiatives.

He wants the city to be more moderate, more business savvy.

Down in Los Angeles, HR's buddy Rick Caruso, a past Goodfellows guest, he's involved with the livelihood of his city.

From New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is On with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher.

My guest today is Chris Larson, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency tech company Ripple.

Larson has become a controversial figure over the past few years, due to his funding of an extensive surveillance network in San Francisco that many credit with lowering crime in the city.

He's never been shy about using his wealth and influence to propel certain policy goals, gaining detractors and admirers along the way.

Um, to me, that, that, it, it instantly gave hope to me and I think to so many people in the city and so many people watching around the country that, like, there's a way to band together in the face of all of this bullshit that's going on.

I just interviewed Chris Larsen yesterday, he's a billionaire up in San Francisco.

He's given a lot of money and is very civically oriented, which is unusual and, and, uh, we had a really interesting discussion about w-what's going on there.

Obviously, his continued homeless problems are very significant.

According to a Chamber of Commerce poll, a striking turnaround from 2024 when London Broyle was the mayor, when locals were overwhelmingly sour on the city's leadership.

Public drug use, rampant theft, embarrassing corruption scandals tainted the city's reputation for years before a moderate voter revolt financed largely by tech bosses such as Ripple chairman Chris Larson, venture capitalist Michael Moritz.

ousted progressive elected officials.

And and look at how that's working out.

All around the world, I guess.

So the billionaire crypto founder, Chris Larson and the Sierra Club founder or former head, I should say, Michael Brune.

So Larson and Brune.

Okay.

But that's basically, I guess, the messaging that they're going to be going with.

So the aggressive tactics on display, massive super PAC spending, deceptive attack ads, punishing opponents, infiltrating the opposition.

These tactics were not invented for... climate change as an issue, but Chris Larson openly admitted that they were imported directly from the crypto industry's highly successful Fairshake SuperPAC.

Fairshake spent hundreds of millions of dollars to turn crypto from a regulatory target into a political kingmaker in a single election cycle.

Activists from Sunrise Movement's Bay Area chapter focused on climate action and nonviolent protest sat outside a crypto billionaire's home in San Francisco this weekend.

Chris Larson is the latest target because of his recent funding of a $9 million grant for the San Francisco Police Department's Real-Time Investigation Center.

The center includes flock automated license plate readers and other so-called live view technologies.

Supporters say the mass surveillance is a tool that assists officers and lowers crime, but critics say the funding expands police surveillance across the city.