A representative for Hoffman declined to comment further.
He told Lonsdale that “attacks on crypto” and unspecified attacks on Big Tech were particularly harmful. “One of the things that I think Silicon Valley shares is this deep view that the way you make massive progress for humanity is creating scale technologies,” Hoffman said. “And the principal way of creating scale technologies is companies, and so if you’re attacking that and limiting it, then you have all kinds of problems.”
The podcast conversation ranged widely—from Hoffman’s new book, Superagency, and the PayPal mafia’s distinctive culture, to AI optimism and the new regulatory battles shaping the technology industry. Even as he championed the promise of AI and entrepreneurship, Hoffman repeatedly returned to his core critique: Innovation has to be a core value for both left and right in America.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
