OpenAI investor Reid Hoffman calls Anthropic ‘one of the good guys’

The two main members of the PayPal mafia are arguing again; this time about artificial intelligence.

Billionaire tech investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on Monday called Anthropic “one of the good guys” after the AI ​​startup was criticized last week by venture capitalist David Sacks, who serves as President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar.

“Anthropic, along with several others (including Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI) are trying to deploy AI in a way that is accurate, thoughtful, safe, and extremely beneficial to society,” Hoffman said. wrote to x. “That’s why I heavily support their success.”

Hoffman has served on Microsoft’s board of directors since 2017, shortly after selling LinkedIn to the software giant. Microsoft is a major OpenAI investor and partner. Hoffman was also an early investor in OpenAI, Anthropic’s largest rival, and remains a shareholder. On Monday, he announced that Greylock, of which he is a partner, invested in Anthropic.

Greylock and Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment.

In a series of posts, Hoffman said he tried to avoid commenting directly on companies like OpenAI and Anthropic but that “in all industries, especially in artificial intelligence, it’s important to support the good guys.”

Hoffman and Sacks were both first employees of the company. PayPalHe joined in 1999 and held key roles at the payments company. Along with Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin and a group of other high-profile technologists, they were part of what became known as the PayPal mafia due to the number of successful companies they founded.

But Hoffman and Sacks have been publicly feuding lately, mostly due to their political differences. Hoffman is a major Democratic donor who contributed millions of dollars to Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful presidential bid.

Before joining the administration, Sacks had emerged as an open Trump supporter ahead of the 2024 election. He hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his mansion in San Francisco.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI executives and researchers who left the company due to security concerns. Jack Clark, one of the startup’s co-founders and current head of policy, fueled the debate about regulation last week: an article It was called “Technological Optimism and Proper Fear.”

Sacks criticized the article and to mail About He said the company was “primarily responsible for the government regulatory frenzy that has damaged the startup ecosystem.”

Anthropic has repeatedly opposed the federal government’s efforts to block state-level AI regulations, including a Trump-backed provision that would block those rules for 10 years.

After Hoffman shared his thoughts on Anthropic on Monday, Sacks and Musk, who owns a rival artificial intelligence company called xAI and is also a key early figure in the second Trump administration, were quick to respond.

“The leading funder of legal and dirty tricks against President Trump wants you to know that ‘Anthropic is one of the good guys,'” Sacks wrote in response to Hoffman on Monday. “Thanks for explaining that. It’s all we need to know.”

“Indeed,” Musk said in response.

The tweet went back and forth on Monday.

“Shows you didn’t read (shocked) the post,” Hoffman wrote. “When you’re ready to have a professional conversation about the impact of AI on America, I’m here to chat.”

Jason Calacanis, who hosts the All-In podcast, along with Sacks and two other tech friends, wrote in response to Hoffman that he “should come on the pod” and invited him this week. Hoffman previously appeared in an episode late in the season. AugustAbout two months before the presidential election.

Hoffman wrote that he was “open to returning” but that “this week is full.”

— CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos contributed to this report

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