A new set of claims is creating a buzz in Silicon Valley after Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s ex-wife, Nicole Shanahan, said that many tech wives were unknowingly pulled into big global agendas through their charity work.
Shanahan, who used to donate huge amounts of money and was once part of RFK Jr.’s 2024 campaign, says she and many other wealthy women truly believed they were helping people. But she now feels they were guided toward projects linked to powerful NGOs, Hollywood circles and institutions connected to the World Economic Forum.
She explains that the donor world in Silicon Valley is very small. The same people meet at the same parties, sit on the same boards and depend on the same advisers for guidance. According to her, these advisers quietly shaped how money was spent, and the donors did not realise how their contributions were being used to support global policy ideas rather than grassroots help.
Shanahan also talks about the personal pressure that comes with extreme wealth. She says many tech wives handle multiple homes, large staffs and stressful family lives. Some deal with anxiety or depression and simply do not have the time or energy to question every decision. Because of this, they often trust whatever their advisers suggest, believing they are doing something meaningful.
When Shanahan looks back at her own donations, she says she thought she was uplifting Black and Indigenous communities. But she now believes things did not improve. She claims crime rose, mental health issues worsened and communities became more dependent on grants. To her, this shows that the current way of doing philanthropy is not actually helping.
She also says two themes kept coming up whenever donors were persuaded to fund something: social justice and climate change. These topics, she believes, were powerful enough to push people into supporting certain programs without fully understanding where the money was going. And whenever someone questioned the plan, she says the reply was always something like “because of climate change”.
Her comments are getting attention because she spent years inside the same wealthy, influential circles she is now speaking about. The debate now is whether Silicon Valley’s donation culture needs more transparency and whether donors should take a closer look at where their money truly goes.
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