Title: Founder of venture capital firm SV Angel
Industry Affiliation
- Conway is the co-founder of venture capital firm SV Angel, whose investments span AI, crypto, fintech, and defense tech, among other industries. SV Angel’s notable investments include the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, OpenAI, Anthropic, defense tech firm Anduril, surveillance tech firm Flock, and Coinbase. SV Angel’s portfolio also lists tech giants Google, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) among its past investments.
- In all, SV Angel’s portfolio lists over 60 companies in the artificial intelligence sector along with 11 crypto firms.
- Conway was instrumental in assisting OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman’s comeback after he was pushed out of the company in 2023 after the board accused Altman of not being honest with them and more focused on growth rather than safety. According to reporting from the New Yorker, Conway was part of Altman’s “government-in-exile” during the period after Altman was ousted. Altman eventually executed a counter-coup with the backing of Microsoft and OpenAI employees and was reinstated as CEO.
Government Affairs
- In September 2026, SV Angel launched Project Blueprint, a “comprehensive plan to partner with tech founders and lawmakers to shape policy around artificial intelligence.”
- To head the project, Conway tapped Jay Carney, President Obama’s Press Secretary who revolved out of government to head policy and communications at Amazon and Airbnb.
- SV Angel’s Project Blueprint calls for more data centers and claims the US “cannot afford to lose its lead to China.” The plan goes on to say that AI can tutor children, mitigate climate change, produce cheaper energy, and lead to earlier cancer detection.
- Rather than being a helpful tutor, AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training, an August 2026 report from MIT, found that AI is causing “‘cognitive surrender’, where students fall back on AI at the first hint of struggle.” Other studies have found that AI harms the ability to truly learn material without the aid of the technology and prevents engagement of “memory networks” when used to assist in writing assignments. The New York Times reported that the rollout of AI tools in schools has led “students to become academically and emotionally dependent on AI.”
- The data center buildout powering artificial intelligence is heavily dependent on the very fossil fuels that are contributing to climate change. According to the International Energy Agency, US data centers relied on fossil fuels for 55% of their power as of 2024, including heavy reliance on coal in some regions. The IEA predicts that natural gas and coal will account for “40% of the additional electricity demand from data centres until 2030.” As a result of the increased energy demand caused by data centers, the utility costs for communities near data centers have skyrocketed. Furthermore, the reliance on fossil fuels could increase cancer rates as communities in the vicinity of fossil fuel production suffer from higher cancer risk.
- Conway helped found the AI industry-associated Leading the Future super PAC in 2025. The PAC received $100 million in backing from Marc Andreessen, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.
- Conway said the PAC “will help ensure [California’s] future” by preventing AI bills that are “anti-building, anti-innovation, [and] anti-growth.” Conway tweeted he was “excited to be part of [Leading the Future],” and donated $500,000 to Think Big, a PAC funded by Leading the Future focused on electing pro-AI Democrats.
- In October 2026, Carney told Politico that Conway regretted supporting Leading the Future due to the PAC’s spending against AI safety advocates.
- According to the most recent FEC data, Leading the Future has spent $44.75 million. The super PAC has backed both Democratic and Republican candidates.
- On the Republican side, they backed House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Reps. Russell Fry (R-SC), Brandon Gill (R-TX), August Pfluger (R-TX), Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), John Joyce (R-PA), Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Brian Jack (R-GA), Riley Moore (R-WV), Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), and Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA). Leading the Future called the representatives “conservative leaders who understand the importance of keeping the United States the global leader in AI innovation.”
- On the Democratic side, the PAC backed Reps. Sam Liccardo (CA-16), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Yvette Clark (NY-09), Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), and Val Hoyle (D-OR).
- Leading the Future has funneled money to Build American AI, an AI advocacy group that is spending millions of dollars attempting to build support for data centers in Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Build American AI was also responsible for an influencer campaign in which it paid content creators up to $5,000 per video to promote Build American AI’s talking points about the American AI industry and warn about the consequences of China outcompeting the US on AI buildout.
- Conway said the PAC “will help ensure [California’s] future” by preventing AI bills that are “anti-building, anti-innovation, [and] anti-growth.” Conway tweeted he was “excited to be part of [Leading the Future],” and donated $500,000 to Think Big, a PAC funded by Leading the Future focused on electing pro-AI Democrats.
- Following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023, Conway had a phone call with Vice President Kamala Harris urging the Biden administration to bail out uninsured deposits of SVB clients. The administration ultimately agreed to fully guarantee deposits, well past the FDIC’s $250,000 threshold.
- The bailout of SVB depositors was pushed for and benefitted the tech and crypto titans like Marc Andreessen and David Sacks who were instrumental in reelecting Trump.
State Level Action
- Conway was a leader of the opposition to a 2024 California bill that would have introduced liability for AI firms and required AI models to have a “kill switch” in case firms lost control of their models. After pressure from Conway and other Silicon Valley giants—including right wing figureheads like Marc Andreessen and Garry Tan—Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, which had bipartisan support among the public.
- Conway funded an effort to defeat California’s 2026 proposed ballot initiative that would institute a 5% wealth tax on billionaires in the state (known as Proposition 40 or the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act). According to Rep. Ro Khanna, Conway called asking him to walk back support for the tax, telling Khanna that it would end his political career. Conway also donated $100,000 to the ‘No on 40’ campaign committee that is working to oppose the ballot initiative.
- Opposition to the proposal, which has raised a total of $108 million, is being led by a slew of tech industry billionaires, including Palantir founder Peter Thiel and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt.
Image Credit: “Ron Conway, SV Angel” by jdlasica is licensed under CC BY 2.0.