Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX, has claimed that he could spend up to $1 billion in the 2024 presidential elections in the United States.
The CEO of FTX might donate up to $1 billion
Bankman-Fried announced his spending plans in an appearance on the podcast “What’s Your Problem?” today, according to CNBC.
In the 2024 elections, Bankman-Fried is expected to donate “north of $100 million,” with a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion. “I’d hate to say hard ceiling,” he said, “because who knows what will happen between now and then.”
He went on to say that the actual amount would depend on the candidates and their programs and that it would be “depending on exactly who’s running where [and] for what.”
According to data from Open Secrets quoted by CNBC, a $1 billion donation would smash all previous records by a factor of ten. The Republican entrepreneurs Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, who spent $218 million in 2020, are the largest single US political donors to date.
Bankman-Fried has a long history of political contributions.
He gave $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s campaign in the November 2020 US elections. That was Biden’s second-largest donation, after only New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $56 million.