Abundance: Big Tech’s Bid for the Democratic Party

In his conversation on the Doomscroll podcast, Ezra Klein made his relationship with Big Tech clear: “I think there are too few visions of the future. I think of Marc Andreessen as my counterpart, the person that I am sparring with a little bit more.”^[1] Andreessen is a Trump-supporting venture capitalist who wrote the Techno-Optimist Manifesto: a call for a tech-driven, free market future. Klein’s Abundance—co-written with Derek Thompson—attempts to bring aspects of Andreessen’s vision to Democrats. Klein and Andreessen are both intensely pro-growth, true believers in the transformative power of innovation. Andreessen is a key figure on the Tech Right, Silicon Valley’s rising authoritarian and anarcho-capitalist wing. Klein is a liberal. Andreessen now advises on DOGE and is a patron of Curtis Yarvin, the self-styled philosopher advocating for “CEO Monarchs” to replace democratically elected leaders.^[2] Abundance isn’t just an airport book; it’s a press release for a collection of think tanks who are fighting to win “a battle for the future of the Democratic Party”–a future that Tech Right billionaires can get behind.^[3]

This won’t be a review of Abundance—many good ones exist. Its policy ideas are standard center-left technocratic fare: some enacted under Biden, others proposed by Harris. Most would help modestly, though likely less than the authors claim.^[4] Instead, I want to focus on “the groups,” as Klein would say. He’s criticized “the groups” for their influence on Democratic politics, even blaming them for Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss.^[5] But his target seems to be certain groups: immigrant rights advocates, LGBT and environmental groups, the ACLU. Klein’s “Abundance Agenda” is just as group-driven: by Third Way neoliberals, and, more troublingly, Silicon Valley’s ascendant illiberal faction which would prefer to exit democracy altogether.

The Think Tanks

To understand the politics of the “Abundance Agenda,” look to the San Francisco Bay Area, where tech billionaire–backed groups successfully took over the city’s Democratic Party.^[6] They ousted a Democratic Socialist from the Board of Supervisors and helped elect several tech-aligned,^[7] right-leaning Democrats.^[8] In a state as blue as California, even conservatives run as Democrats—many backed by donors who fund Republicans nationally.^[9] What began as the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) project’s narrow focus on zoning reform evolved into a sweeping pro-growth, neoliberal, and socially moderate brand of politics. “Abundance!” now serves as a rallying cry for a new kind of Democrat: techno-optimistic, skeptical of government, and supportive of a welfare state only when it comes with harsh restrictions.^[10] This agenda has been disastrous for San Francisco’s poor and working class. Mayor London Breed—who tech-backed Abundance groups campaigned for—successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to allow further criminalization of homelessness,^[11] even when no shelter is available.^[12]

Now, a group of think tanks and billionaires is mounting the same astroturf strategy nationally. On their book tour, Thompson and Klein sound less like journalists and more like spokesmen for these groups, repeating polished talking points about who the enemies of Abundance are—leftists—and who isn’t to blame after all: oligarchs. One of the groups is the Niskanen Center, where Klein’s Vox co-founder Matt Yglesias is a Senior Fellow.^[13] The Niskanen Center outlined a plan for its allied groups to attempt something like the Democratic Leadership Council, which fought and won a battle for a neoliberal takeover of the Democratic Party in the 1990s.^[14] These groups are:

• The Foundation for American Innovation
• Center for New Liberalism
• Niskanen Center
• The Breakthrough Institute
• The Inclusive Abundance Initiative
• The Abundance Network
• The Abundance Institute
• Institute for Progress

While some of these groups reflect Third Way neoliberalism reminiscent of the Clinton or Obama eras, others are tied to funders and ideas rooted in the Tech Right—a reactionary wing of Silicon Valley associated with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, and Balaji Srinivasan. The Tech Right promotes eugenics, pro-natalism, cryptocurrency, charter cities, “Network States” and “anti-wokeness.”^[15] It envisions a techno-authoritarian state powered by AI that protects capital over civil liberties. The Tech Right has reshaped the Republican Party, and with the Abundance faction, is trying to reshape Democrats.

What follows is a closer look at “Abundance” organizations, funders, and ideas—and why their influence on the Democratic Party is cause for alarm.

The Foundation for American Innovation: Freedom Cities and Right Abundance

Patri Friedman, grandson of neoliberal high-priest, Milton Friedman, doesn’t worry about losing his Tesla key—it’s implanted in his hand. “I’ve gotten in the habit of getting crazy medical treatments here, ” he tells an interviewer from Reason Magazine, showing off a subdermal ID chip under a bandage. “Two trips ago I got gene therapy to make me stronger and faster. Last trip I had my mouth bacteria replaced with genetically engineered ones so I’ll never get cavities.” Próspera is a privately run city in a ZEDE—a special economic zone carved out of Honduran territory, a city run like a business, designed to attract foreign capital.^[16] Decisions aren’t made at the ballot box; they’re made by Prospera Inc. It’s a real-world Galt’s Gulch: a libertarian fantasy lifted from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, where crypto barons and venture capitalists escape taxes, regulations, and the social contract. Friedman backed Próspera through his firm, Pronomos Capital, alongside Tech Right billionaires like Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Balaji Srinivasan.

I met Friedman in 2009 at Ephemerisle–a floating party hosted by the Seasteading Institute—the Thiel-funded nonprofit Friedman co-founded to build libertarian ocean cities in international waters. The event took place on a makeshift flotilla in the Sacramento Delta, decorated with Burning Man style and populated by engineers doing lines in the porta-potties. Back then, anarcho-capitalist “exit” seemed like a nutty pipedream for Thiel, who declared: “I no longer believe freedom and democracy are compatible.” Instead of relocating to the high seas or Mars, by 2016, Thiel was speaking at the Republican National Convention.^[17]

In 2023, then-candidate Donald Trump floated the idea of creating “Freedom Cities” on federal land.^[18] As in Prospera, founders could experiment with defense tech, biotech, nuclear power, and skyscrapers in a special economic zone. The Tech Right saw the political possibilities. As historian Quinn Slobodian writes in Crack-Up Capitalism: “Once capital flees to new, low-tax, unregulated zones, the theory goes, nonconforming economies would be forced to emulate these anomalies. By starting small, the zone sets out to model a new end-state for all.”

As of now, Freedom Cities Coalition, NeWay Capital, Pronomos Capital, the Frontier Foundation, the Charter Cities Institute, the Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI) are among the groups lobbying Trump to make his campaign promise a reality.

FAI is a core “Abundance Agenda” think tank that’s pretty open about its Tech Right affiliations, even publishing a Tech Right Gift Guide for the holidays. They co-hosted the Abundance 2024 conference—a gathering where “Abundance Agenda” organizations mingled, shared policy ideas, and politically strategized.^[19] The event was emceed by the host of FAI’s podcast The Realignment, and included their Chief Economist, Samuel Hammond, a Project 2025 contributor and author of “The EA [Effective Altruism] Case for Trump.”^[20]

FAI played a central role in organizing the Reboot 2024 conference, which featured Tech Right leaders along with establishment conservatives, two factions in increasingly close alignment. Reboot featured sessions on topics such as “The New Politics of Crypto,” “Artificial Intelligence and Leviathan,” and “Population Implosion.” Speakers included Reihan Salam, President of the Manhattan Institute; Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator and early Palantir employee; and Mike Solana, the CMO of Thiel’s “Founder’s Fund,” and several other Thiel associates. The event received funding from Sovereign House, a venue said to be backed by Thiel and his house philosopher Curtis Yarvin,^[2:1] a software engineer who has spent a decade advocating the dismantling of the administrative state via a four letter agency that sounds suspiciously like DOGE.

The “surprise guest” of the conference was Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation and Chief Architect of Project 2025. The techno-libertarians have come a long way since tumbling off floating platforms into the Sacramento Delta.

Institute for Progress: Toward Techtopia

About an hour from San Francisco, farmers in Solano County spent months speculating about who was secretly scooping up massive swaths of land. A corporate farming behemoth? A real-estate developer planning suburban sprawl? Disney building a theme park? A hostile foreign adversary trying to kill everyone? Worse: tech billionaires preparing their utopia.

The project, dubbed “California Forever”, was meant to be a charter city–a dense, walkable urban paradise that would make YIMBYs weep with joy. But the secrecy surrounding the land grab, along with the lawsuits filed against farmers who refused to sell, did little to win hearts and minds. The fact that Patrick Collison, Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, and several other tech billionaires were behind the company town just creeped people out. As Gil Duran noted in The New Republic, the project mirrored Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State vision. The billionaire investors not only hoped to reimagine urban planning but also experiment with new forms of governance: a Tech Bro Eden with CEO gods. After years of secretly buying up land and a yearlong public campaign, the development faced so much opposition from locals that the billionaires scrapped the rezoning ballot measure.^[21] A techno-utopian vision thwarted by zoning once again. The investors are now considering a pivot to shipbuilding.^[22]

One of the “California Forever” billionaires, Patrick Collison,^[23] CEO of Stripe, looms large in Abundance world. Along with Open Philanthropy, he donated to fund a $120 million “Abundance” grant tied to Klein’s book release. Collison is a key backer and inspiration for the Institute for Progress (IFP), a think tank which works closely with others in the Abundance network, including at the Abundance 2024 conference. Collison co-founded “Progress Studies” with economist Tyler Cowen, born from their Atlantic article, “We Need a New Science of Progress.” While IFP isn’t officially a “Progress Studies” think tank, its mission aligns closely, and it has received funding from both Collison and Emergent Ventures,^[24] Cowen’s Mercatus Center grant program established with funding from Thiel. Klein and Thompson were interviewed by Collison on their book tour.^[25]

Cowen has his own interest in Network State style projects. Balaji Srinivasan, a cryptocurrency billionaire and Próspera funder,^[26] defines a Network State as “a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world.”^[27] In this alternative governance structure, tech elites would create private, blockchain based enclaves—Srinivasan calls this [“tech zionism.”^[28] Network States are founded on empty land, or by taking over an existing city—as Network State evangelists have attempted in San Francisco. Srinivasan even called for “ethnically cleansing” San Francisco of non-tech people.^[29]

Cowen is an early backer of Praxis, alongside Srinivasan and Thiel. Praxis describes itself as “a grassroots movement of modern pioneers,” aiming to build an autonomous, cryptocurrency city. Initial plans proposed a Mediterranean location, but last fall, the Praxis CEO tweeted “I went to Greenland to try to buy it.” Greenland, however, reiterated that the country is not for sale.

Cowen has been a protégé and friend of Thiel’s, citing him as a major influence. He advocates a form of government called “State Capacity Libertarianism” which, unlike anarcho-capitalism, includes a strong state apparatus. In Cowen’s words: “a good strong state should see the maintenance and extension of capitalism as one of its primary duties, in many cases its #1 duty.” He explicitly credits Thiel for inspiring this idea: “You will note the influence of Peter Thiel on State Capacity Libertarianism,” Cowen writes, “though I have never heard him frame the issues in this way.”^[30]

Anarcho-capitalism might have been the right label for Thiel’s earlier vision—floating platforms in international waters. But today, many on the Tech Right see a powerful state as essential: to police, surveil, and hand out billions in defense contracts. Both Klein’s “supply-side progressivism” and Cowen and Thiel’s “state capacity libertarianism” call for fortifying the state. The key difference is in their goals: while Klein wants that state capacity to serve the public good, his collaborators have something else in mind.

The Abundance Network and the Astroturf Strategy

At a meetup for Effective Accelerationists in San Francisco—a sect of AI advocates pushing total deregulation—Garry Tan laid out his vision: “If we can build here, we’re going to take over the whole country. We’re going to take over every nation in the world.”^[31]

Tan wasn’t joking. He spoke at Srinivasan’s Network State Conference and posted thinly veiled death threats against seven progressive supervisors.^[32] With a résumé like that, it’s easy to see why abundance-aligned groups might prefer Ezra Klein as their public face. Since 2022, tech billionaires like Tan have funneled money into San Francisco politics—bankrolling the recalls of DA Chesa Boudin and several school board members, and helping oust Democratic Socialist Dean Preston in favor of “moderate” candidates pushing right-wing policies like drug testing welfare recipients.

The Abundance Network—founded by Zack Rosen,^[33] former CEO of Pantheon—is one of several tech-aligned groups that spent over $20 million in the 2024 cycle, alongside GrowSF, TogetherSF, and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco. Local watchdogs call them “the Astroturf Network.”^[34] In 2023, backed by crypto and DeFi donors, they helped orchestrate a tech-powered takeover of the San Francisco Democratic Party.^[35]

Top donors to the Abundance Network are:

• Bloomberg: $1.25M
• Chris Larsen (Ripple): $900k
• Norcal Carpenters Union: $526k
• Erica & Jeffrey Lawson (Jeffrey owns the Onion, Erica works at UCSF): $224k
• Dignity CA SEIU 2015: $150k
• Phillip Dreyfuss (Hedge fund manager): $150k
• Jesse Pollak (Coinbase): $145k
• Tony Xu (DoorDash): $100k
• Emmett Shear (Y Combinator): $100k
• Oakland Police Officers Association: $100k^[36]

Rosen is a co-founder of CAYIMBY, a proto-abundance non-profit. The other co-founder is Nat Friedman, an investor in California Forever. The broader YIMBY movement traces back to 2014, when Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman gave a grant to Sonja Trauss, a local anarcho-capitalist with an organization called SFBARF.^[37] The marriage of tech money, zoning, and Bay Area fringe ideologies continues to evolve.

The Effective Altruists

In 2022, Effective Altruism (EA) had two large donors.^[38] One of them, Sam Bankman-Fried, is now in prison for decades with Diddy, pending a Trump pardon. The other is Dustin Moskowitz,^[39] a billionaire co-founder of Facebook and the second-largest donor to the Democratic Party. He keeps a low profile, but has become one of Silicon Valley’s leading anti-Musk voices. Much of the funding for “abundance” organizations, conferences, and initiatives comes from Moskowitz’s EA non-profit Open Philanthropy, including a large grant announced in tandem with Klein’s book.^[40]

Klein is no stranger to EA. He’s a co-founder of Future Perfect, an EA vertical at Vox, which received a large grant from Bankman-Fried.^[41] He’s interviewed multiple representatives of Open Philanthropy, including Will MacAskill, who formerly served as “moral advisor” to Sam Bankman-Fried, about the ethical case for prioritizing the far future—the very far future.^[42] Not climate change, but digital humans who live in outer space.

On Pod Save America, Klein bemoaned that “liberals have found themselves in a dysfunctional relationship with the future,” seeming to borrow from MacAskill’s rhetoric.^[43] Critics of Longtermism argue focusing on the distant future may divert needed attention from the injustices of today, like fantasizing about space Ozempic, while ICE deports students. “Star pills,” weight-loss medication produced in space, is an idea mentioned in the intro to Abundance.

Effective Altruism (EA) and Longtermism aren’t inherently fascist, but their utilitarian foundation has attracted questionable adherents, including eugenicists and “race scientists.” One of the major leaders in Longtermism, Nick Bostrom, is a key proponent of these views.^[44] At EA conferences in 2023 and 2024, speakers like Dylan Matthews from Vox and Jeremiah Johnson from the Center for New Liberalism shared the stage with known eugenicists.^[45] Elon Musk himself has hinted at aligning with Longtermism, calling it “a close match for my philosophy.”

Open Philanthropy has provided funding to the Niskanen Center, The Breakthrough Institute, The Inclusive Abundance Initiative, the Abundance Institute, and the Institute for Progress. But it’s not all space and sci-fi–The Stand Together Trust, a key component in the Koch network, has also provided funding for “Abundance Agenda” groups.^[46]

Stopping the Progressives

Niskanen envisions a new right-liberal alliance centered around “abundance” and opposing the left, arguing that by working within a political party, new model supply-siders can advance their cause and break free from traditional left-right polarization.^[3:1] So what does it really mean to collaborate with the Tech Right?

Socially, it’s awkward. Derek Thompson came under fire for his decision to promote Abundance on the podcast of Richard Hanania,^[47] a conservative journalist who was outed for pseudonymously posting extensive white supremacist content on Richard Spencer’s website.^[48] Hanania, who has received funding and praise from Thiel and Andreesseen, is a key figure in Rationalist circles, and has shared a passion for “race and IQ” conversations of the kind that Klein denounced in 2018 on Sam Harris’ podcast.^[49] Harris has also repeatedly promoted Effective Altruism.

Klein sat in an interview with Thiel-affiliate Tyler Cowen recently to promote Abundance. Cowen asked:

What if someone said, a true abundance agenda — of course, this could never happen — but it’s basically to zero out Medicare and Medicaid, which is a lot of money, and spend all of that on science and birth subsidies and social security for that matter? Why isn’t that the true abundance agenda?
 
KLEIN: The true abundance agenda would be to zero out Medicare and Medicaid and spend –?
 
COWEN: Christian Scientists — they still have decent life expectancy. People would have maybe higher social security. They could still buy healthcare. We’d have many more people. It’d be a much younger society, more dynamic society. Scientific advances would mean we’d cure many more diseases, forms of cancer. People would probably live longer. Why not do that? Just go crazy on innovation and number of births.

Klein appears queasy at the question, and finally lands on, “It doesn’t fit my politics.”^[50]

Abundance is undeniably a Silicon Valley interest, especially with Trump’s policies—like restricting H1B visas and imposing tariffs– alienating tech billionaires. Trump might be a dreaded “degrowther.” Thompson has said as much to Srinivasan on Twitter.^[51] Meanwhile, Klein is meeting with legislators,^[52] and knowingly or unknowingly enacting a plan the Abundance Network made for him in 2023 to create a Klein-led “Abundance” faction.^[53] Matt Yglesias, who recently did a fundraiser for a cryptocurrency friendly candidate with Andreessen,^[54] expressed support for Freedom Cities,^[55] as well as a Network State-style project in Northern California.^[56] It wouldn’t be surprising to see other Abundance liberals join Yglesias in embracing privatized charter cities and special economic zones.^{[57] [58]}

In a Kamala Harris administration, Klein and Thompson’s book and tour might serve as a policy template. But under President Trump, it’s a call for tech billionaires, including many who donated to Trump, to fund real estate lobbying groups and neoliberal Democrats like Abundance faction hero,^[59] Democratic Governor Jared Polis, who this week praised Argentina’s anarcho-capitalist leader Javier Milei. Under Milei, poverty in Argentina has surged to 53%.^[60] The growth of Argentina’s economy, without redistribution, hasn’t meant abundance for all. Other Abundance Democrats have their own baggage. Ritchie Torres—one of Congress’ first “Abundance Agenda” promoters—is a Silicon Valley favorite who joined with Republicans to create the Congressional Cryptocurrency Caucus. Torres has also been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories about student protesters during the Trump administration's crackdown.^[61]

What’s most troubling, however, is that Klein and Thompson seem to be arguing a case that doesn’t square with their own liberal politics. If regulations are the primary obstacle to abundance, why not advocate for anarcho-capitalism? Can anyone truly believe that Democrats could out-DOGE DOGE? Elon Musk has amplified clips of Klein lamenting regulatory processes, as if to say, “Yes, I’m slashing your administrative state, but abundance is incoming.” Klein and Thompson are now touring the country promoting their case against environmental regulations, while Musk enthusiastically guts the EPA.^[62] Both Klein and the Tech Right agree on one thing: democracy interferes with the market’s ability to generate abundance. While Klein’s version is more toned-down—limiting community input on development—his allies on the Tech Right are willing to go much further. Klein is merely offering a “diet” version of the agenda.

Abundance for Whom?

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been attracting large crowds on their “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here,” tour. 36,000 in Los Angeles. 23,000 in Tacoma, Washington. 15,000 in Tempe, Arizona.^[63] 2,600 in Altoona, Wisconsin, a town of less than 10,000 residents.^[64] The crowds were a wide mix of young and old, many of whom didn’t vote for Bernie either time he ran for President. In Los Angeles, when Sanders accused Elon Musk of “decimating” the Social Security Administration—warning that service cuts would hurt the elderly and disabled—the crowd erupted, shouting “Monster!”^[65]

“I am watching my country be taken away from me,” said a woman in Omaha, where 2,500 people showed up. “I needed hope.”

“I work two jobs. A full-time and a part-time. I literally work 7 days a week as a nurse,” a woman told a reporter outside a rally in Denver, Colorado, which drew over 30,000 people. “We also have autistic 6-year-old twins… we have to pay for their speech therapy, occupational therapy, especially with the Department of Education being dismantled.”

“They are very much against unionizing of nurses,” the Denver nurse explained. “They make it to where you have skeleton crews, but you can’t do anything about it.” Colorado is one of the hardest states in the country to unionize. It requires two separate votes, and the second must pass with a 75% supermajority. Now, Democrats in the legislature finally have the votes to repeal that law. But Governor Jared Polis—abundance evangelist—is threatening to veto the repeal.

“Fuck all the fucking oligarchies that are trying to run this country,” the nurse added. “Because you’re not it. You’re not the country. We are.”

The Abundance faction and the tech billionaires funding it may be fighting for the future of the Democratic Party. But the nurses, the teachers, the seniors, and the Medicaid recipients are fighting for its present. They seem less enthusiastic about permit reform than the possibility of an opposition party who will tell Musk, Thiel, and maybe even Klein to go to Mars—because Earth belongs to the rest of us.