FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried said in a podcast Monday that he could donate as much as $1 billion in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
- In an interview on the Pushkin podcast "What's Your Problem?" the billionaire crypto entrepreneur said he would spend "north of $100 million" on future political campaigns. That record-setting figure would represent a "soft cap" on his donations, he said.
- Bankman-Fried is an effective altruist who is worth $20 billion and has already donated $200 million of his net worth, according to the podcast interview. Much of that has gone to politics: This year, he gave $23 million to a single political action committee.
- His political donations have yielded mixed results. Bankman-Fried was one of the largest single donors to support President Biden's winning 2020 campaign. But his favored candidate in Oregon's congressional primary was defeated last week, despite benefiting from $11 million in Bankman-Fried PAC money.
- As for spending in the 2024 presidential election, "it's going to depend on who's running," Bankman-Fried told podcast host Jacob Goldstein. "I'm going to look much less at political party from that perspective and much more at sound governance."