David Sacks, the encryption director at the White House, has a diverse background: Silicon Valley investor, close friend of Musk, and principal investor in Wansheng.

Author: Weilin, PANews

On December 6, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced the appointment of David Sacks as the White House Commissioner for Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency. The investor, who has a proven track record in both Silicon Valley and politics, will lead U.S. policymaking in the field of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

Trump announced on Truth Social: "I am pleased to announce that David O. Sacks will serve as the ‘White House Director of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency.’ In this important role, David will guide the government’s policy direction in the two crucial areas of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency for America’s future competitiveness. David will focus on making the United States a clear leader in these two fields globally. He will protect freedom of speech on the internet, avoiding bias and censorship by big tech companies. He will be dedicated to establishing a legal framework that provides clear guidance for the encryption industry and promotes its thriving development in the United States. David will also lead the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Later, Sacks responded on social media, “Thank you for the trust, Mr. President. I am deeply honored and look forward to boosting America’s competitiveness in key technology areas. Under your leadership, the future is bright!”

From South Africa to Silicon Valley, David Sacks’ company invests in multiple encryption projects

David Oliver Sacks was born in 1972 to a Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa. At the age of five, he moved to Tennessee, USA with his family. He is a South African-American entrepreneur, writer, and investor in Internet technology companies.

Sacks served as the COO and Head of Product at PayPal, where he gained fame as an important member of the Silicon Valley ‘PayPal Mafia’. He later founded workplace Social Web company Yammer, which was acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012. In 2016, Sacks briefly served as the interim CEO of Zenefits and in 2017, he founded Craft Ventures, a company focused on early-stage technology investments. His angel investments include companies such as Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, and Airbnb.

Craft company has invested in Boring, Neuralink, and SpaceX, among other companies under Musk. Craft has also invested in some companies that share Sacks’ free speech philosophy, such as the social podcast company Callin and the social media platform Reddit, as well as some companies related to enterprise technology, such as the productivity startup ClickUp and the Compliance startup Vanta.

According to Rootdata, Cryptocurrency projects invested by Craft Ventures include: dYdX, Lightning Labs, River Financial, Kresus, Set Protocol, FOLD, Harbor, Handshake, Voltage, Galoy, Lumina, and Rare Bits. In addition, he is a strong holder of Solana, and has not sold his SOL holdings even after the collapse of FTX. He publicly claims that Solana may surpass Ethereum. Sacks has also dabbled in Hollywood, producing the satirical film ‘Thank You for Smoking’ in 2005, which explores how political lobbyists package unacceptable views to make them seem reasonable. He is also a co-host of the podcast ‘All In’ with Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg.

Impact on the Election: Musk’s Friend and Vice President Vance’s Benefactor

With the rise of wealth accumulated in the tech circle, Sacks has become an important political donor. Although his donations are not as large as those of Steve Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft) and Ron Conway (one of the earliest investors in Google, known as the ‘Godfather of Silicon Valley’), in recent years, the scale of his donations has been enough to attract attention. He also established a political action committee called Purple Good Government PAC, of which he and his wife, Jacqueline, are the main donors. Through this PAC, they have provided political contributions to the Kennedy family.

Sacks is a close friend of ELON Musk, and for the past year or so, he has been one of the people encouraging Musk to get more involved in Republican politics. He hosted a fundraising event for Trump in June in San Francisco and spoke at the Republican National Convention in July. This summer, Trump also appeared on his podcast.

Sacks has a close relationship with the incoming Vice President and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, and has become an important sponsor of his political career. In California, Sacks has funded some efforts to counteract politicians that many conservatives in the state consider too liberal. From 2022 to 2023, Sacks contributed nearly $2 million to national candidates, with the majority going to Vance. Republican political consultant Rob Stutzman said, “With Vance’s rising popularity, I think Sacks is one of those who may gain more influence as a result.”

Despite the attention to donations in the political arena, Sacks has publicly stated that he has no intention of running for public office and believes that political appointments such as ambassadorship are too mundane compared to developing products or investing in technology companies.

His political allies said he is helping the conservative faction of the technology industry find their political voice. “There are many interesting movements in Silicon Valley that are being followed by Washington,” said Saurabh Sharma, head of the right-leaning policy organization American Moment, which is funded by Sacks. “David is leading the way.”

Crypto Assets and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for the White House’s New Role

Sacks’ support for Crypto Assets has been longstanding. Sacks stated in 2017 that digital asset and tokenization pose a challenge to traditional venture capital, and venture capital firms that want to invest before the ICO must compete with angel investors to provide true value-add. In addition, LP equity may be tokenized like most other illiquid assets.

At that time, Sacks pointed out, “I feel that we are witnessing the birth of a new type of network. Some people call it the Decentralization network or the currency internet.” BTC strengthens its scarcity through the combination of cryptography and economic incentives (cryptoeconomics).

At the time, Sacks also said that he believed cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have achieved PayPal’s “original vision”: to create a “currency database” that ensures payments are always completed within the system.

Many of Sacks’s views are typical of conservatism. He criticizes government spending extravagance and overly aggressive regulatory policies. On the issue of freedom of speech, he takes a clear libertarian position. Since his undergraduate years at Stanford University in the early 1990s, Sacks has worked for the libertarian newspaper Stanford Review, founded by PayPal co-founder and investor Peter Thiel. Sacks and Thiel also co-authored a book called ‘The Diversity Myth’ in 1995, reflecting his early follow on public affairs.

As for Sacks’ views on artificial intelligence and its policy making, they are not very clear, but overall, his policy position is clearly leaning to the right, tending to relax regulations, which may mean that the policies he adopts will be looser than the outgoing Biden administration.

From Silicon Valley investor to political donor, David Sacks’ multiple identities demonstrate his influence in the fields of technology, business, and politics. As the White House Director of Cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence, his next steps in advancing the United States in these critical areas are highly anticipated.