Patrick Collison, the billionaire tech entrepreneur, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party in the run-up to the US election on November 5. It is the first time that the chief executive of payments company Stripe has donated significant amounts of money to the Republicans.
Since 2016 Collison had been a regular supporter of the Democratic Party, backing politicians including Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. He also supported Kamala Harris for senator in 2018.
However, in the final month of the election campaign, Collison appeared to cross the aisle. The Limerick native gave $200,000 to various Republican political action committees (Pacs). He donated more than $83,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, a Pac devoted to increasing party representation in the House of Representatives.
The committee spent most of the $249 million it raised opposing Democratic candidates. It spent less than $250,000 on supporting President Trump.
Collison, a resident of California, also supported the Republican House of Representatives candidates Andy Barr of Kentucky and French Hill of Arkansas. In October he gave $58,300 apiece to Pacs associated with Barr and Hill.
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Both men are leaders on the House financial services committee: Hill was elected chairman in December. They are pro-business, pro-life and pro-cryptocurrency.
Stripe declined to comment on Friday.
Collison, 36, is estimated by Forbes to be worth $7.2 billion. Between 2016 and 2025 he gave nearly $300,000 to Democratic Pacs. His latest donation to a Democratic candidate was made in June to a Pac linked to Maria Cantwell, a Washington senator.
There was a shift among many of California’s tech moguls to the Republican Party for the US elections. Elon Musk, the X owner, was the most vocal “tech bro” supporter, but Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Apple leader Tim Cook and Google boss Sundar Pichai were all at Trump’s inauguration.
Last week it was reported that Stripe was cutting 300 jobs, with only a minimal effect on the Irish operations.
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