Global AI Conclave: Politics has infiltrated Silicon Valley for the first time; not dealt with this before, says General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja

Hemant Taneja, CEO and Managing Director of General Catalyst in conversation with Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor of CNBC-TV18.

This is the first time that politics has infiltrated Silicon Valley and the ecosystem is still not very mature to deal with a situation like this, Hemant Taneja, CEO and Managing Director of General Catalyst, one of the most prominent venture capital (VC) firms, said while speaking at the CNBC-TV18 & Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave 2024 on November 22.

His comments come at a time when the entire tech fraternity is discussing Tesla chief Elon Musk’s close ties with US President-elect Donald Trump and the influence the former has on the government. Earlier this month, Trump announced that Musk along with Vivek Ramaswamy will co-head the upcoming Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency commission (DOGE), giving him formal rights to make decisions for the government.

“This is really the first time politics has infiltrated the valley. We have stayed away from that. As a firm, we passed a resolution at the board level that we will not take any positions, stay non-partisan, focus on working with any administration that comes in and be good partners to them from a business standpoint. That’s the right way to engage,” Taneja said.

Some individuals are very heated on what they think is a loss of opportunity, but you do have to respect democracy, as per Taneja.

“Administrations come and go, as business leaders we should be thinking on a much longer horizon than that. The Valley, to me, hasn’t been so mature in this area because it is not something we have dealt with before.”

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Asked how General Catalyst was dealing with this, especially because it’s happening for the first time, Taneja said the firm has worked with previous administrations and will continue to do so with the next one.

“Our team in DC (Washington DC) is working with them (the new administration) and making sure we can provide our business perspectives on how industries can be transformed. This is all about the country’s economic systems and we want to have a voice in it. We also want to bring the entrepreneurs that we work to make a difference there,” Taneja concluded.

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