John Doerr, the billionaire tech venture capitalist whose firm Kleiner Perkins is heavily invested in artificial intelligence, has set up a new “dark money” group that gave more than $10 million in grants last year to Democratic Party network groups, including $7.5 million to the nonprofits aligned with Senate and House Democratic leadership, according to a tax filing reviewed by Sludge.
The donations came as TechNet, the industry lobbying group where Doerr is a co-founder and was an executive council member for over 25 years, pushed Congress to pass a federal framework on AI of narrow, “risk-based” rules that would preempt state laws. In 2023, Doerr told a Senate AI forum convened by Sen. Chuck Schumer that proposals to change antitrust rules were chilling the venture capital industry by making it harder for startups to be acquired.
