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Billionaires poured millions of dollars into presidential super PACs in August

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Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump (L), and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Reuters

The nation’s wealthy opened their wallets in August with a focus on election season, donating millions to the super PACs backing Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and Democrats and Republicans throughout the country, according to monthly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

The largest single-contributor donations went to MAGA Inc., the super PAC backing Trump, with Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks, a prolific GOP megadonor, giving $10 million to the group.

Howard Lutnick, the CEO of the financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, and Paul Singer, the president of Elliott Management, an investment management firm, both gave $5 million to MAGA Inc.

Annette Caldwell Simmons, the widow of businessman Harold Simmons, gave $2 million to MAGA Inc., while Warren Stephens, the CEO of investment bank Stephens Inc., gave $1 million.

On the Democratic side, tech entrepreneurs were the biggest donors to FF PAC, also known as Future Forward, a super PAC backing Harris’ presidential bid.

The biggest donors to the group in August were Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and his wife, Erica.

Moskovitz donated $3 million to FF PAC, while Hastings, Jeff Lawson and Erica Lawson each gave $1 million.

Hastings, who is a major backer of Democrats, was one of the biggest Democratic donors to publicly call for President Joe Biden to step aside from his re-election campaign earlier this year.

The reports out Friday only included donations from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31, the first full month that Harris was the presumptive — and later official — Democratic presidential nominee.

Super PACs like FF PAC and MAGA Inc. are havens for prolific political megadonors like Hendricks, Lutnick and Hastings because, unlike campaigns and their affiliated committees, super PACs don’t have limits on how much individuals can donate.

Further down the ballot, Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC that boosts GOP congressional and Senate candidates, received two major donations in August of $5 million each from Jeff Yass, the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading group, and Richard Uihlein, the founder of shipping supply company Uline.

Yass and Uihlein are both major GOP megadonors who have given to Club for Growth and other conservative groups for multiple election cycles.

On the Democratic side, House Majority PAC, a group that boosts Democrats running for Congress, received $600,000 in August from Amos Hostetter Jr., the co-founder of Continental Cablevision, the biggest donation to the group for this filing period.

Hostetter has a history of donating to anti-Trump groups.

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Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: HIMS, TEM, FANG

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Anthropic closes in on $3.5 billion funding round

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Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21st, 2025.

Gerry Miller | CNBC

Anthropic is in talks to raise a $3.5 billion funding round, significantly more than the amount previously expected, CNBC has confirmed.

The round would roughly triple the artificial intelligence startup’s valuation to $61.5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. Lightspeed Ventures is leading the funding, with participation from General Catalyst and others, the sources said.

The financing, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, signals continued investor demand for top-tier AI companies, even in the face of potential disruption from China’s DeepSeek. Anthropic is backed by Amazon and Google, and had initially set out to raise $2 billion, according to a source.

Anthropic declined to comment.

The company’s last private market valuation was $18 billion. Amazon has poured $8 billion into the startup.

Anthropic was founded by early OpenAI employees and is the creator of the popular chatbot Claude. Earlier Monday, Anthropic released what it says is it’s “most intelligent AI model yet. Its so-called hybrid model combines an ability to reason — or stopping to think about complex answers — with a traditional model that spits out answers in real time.

WATCH: Anthropic unveils newest AI model

Amazon-backed Anthropic unveils newest AI-model

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Jamie Dimon calls U.S. government ‘inefficient,’ touts Elon Musk’s DOGE effort

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Watch CNBC's full interview with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Monday said the U.S. government is inefficient and in need of work as the Trump administration terminates thousands of federal employees and works to dismantle agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Dimon was asked by CNBC’s Leslie Picker whether he supported efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. He declined to give what he called a “binary” response, but made comments that supported the overall effort.

“The government is inefficient, not very competent, and needs a lot of work,” Dimon told Picker. “It’s not just waste and fraud, its outcomes.”

The Trump administration’s effort to rein in spending and scrutinize federal agencies “needs to be done,” Dimon added.

“Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change?” Dimon said. “It’s not just about the deficit, its about building the right policies and procedures and the government we deserve.”

Dimon said if DOGE overreaches with its cost-cutting efforts or engages in activity that’s not legal, “the courts will stop it.”

“I’m hoping it’s quite successful,” he said.

In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon also addressed his company’s push to have most workers in office five days a week, as well as his views on the Ukraine conflict, tariffs and the U.S. consumer.

Watch CNBC's full interview with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

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