Tech billionaire Peter Teal just made a big splash in politics.

Teal gave 10 million dollars to a superpacked backing potential US Senate candidate JD

Vance, who you probably know is the author of the best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

Book published in 2016, supposedly shed light on why working-class voters in Appalachia

supported Donald Trump.

Now Teal's big donation backing Vance reveals how the billionaire philanthropist is trying

to reshape the Republican Party, joining me as Rico's Teddy Schlafer with more on the

story.

Hey, Teddy.

Hey, I think a lot of people who listen to this show know who Peter Teal is, but remind

all of us who he is and why will you pay attention to him.

So Peter Teal isn't just another rich person.

I mean, he's the founder of PayPal and he's on the board of Facebook, so that's kind of

the resume explanation.

But probably more than other Silicon Valley billionaires, Teal has sort of cultivated an

influence network in conservative politics and media along the margins of Silicon Valley.

I think is the best way to think about it.

So Teal has money, but he also has influence in a way that a lot of people look up to him

and he sort of become a leading figure in, I guess, parts of the backlash to tech.

He's unusual among Silicon Valley billionaires for two reasons, right?

Both his politics and the fact that he has politics up until 2016, most of the billionaires

of Silicon Valley sort of stayed away from politics, but Teal has always been sort of

...