Sam Altman, the president of Silicon Valley startup Y Combinator, has refused to cut ties with part-time partner and investor Peter Thiel over his support of Donald Trump.
Thiel’s support of Donald Trump has been well documented, with the Silicon Valley billionaire endorsing Trump at the Republican National Convention and pledging to donate $1.25 million dollars to the Trump campaign and a Trump super PAC. He has come under fire for his support of the Republican candidate, with many Silicon Valley elites calling for Sam Altman to part ways with Thiel.
Altman has refused, publishing a series of tweets explaining his opinion on the matter. “I am voting against Trump because I believe the principles he stands for represent an unacceptable threat to America,” tweeted Altman.
“Thiel is a high profile supporter of Trump. I disagree with this. YC is not going to fire someone for supporting a major party nominee,” he continued. “We need to talk to each other more, not less. Most people think roughly half the country is severely misguided. Cutting off opposing viewpoints leads to extremism and will not get us the country we want.”
Altman indicated in another tweet that Y Combinator would be making an official blog post on the situation soon.
Y Combinator’s founder Paul Graham echoed Altman’s sentiment, saying, “Do you mean YC should cut ties to Peter because of his political views? It seems to me that’s the sort of thing we’re fighting against.”
Lucas Nolan is a conservative who regularly contributes articles on censorship and free speech to Breitbart. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolan_ or email him at lucas@yiannopoulos.net