He signed an open letter to the leaders of venture company Sequoia Capital after posting what the group described as an “intentional and inflammatory attack” on New York City’s candidate for Islamic Democratic mayor.
President Donald Trump’s vocal supporter Maguire posted on X that Zoran Mamdalan Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary last month, “comes from a culture that lies about everything and moves forward the ‘Muslim agenda’.”
The post had 5.3 million views as of Monday afternoon. Investments in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and X, as well as the artificial intelligence startup Safe Superintelligence, also published videos on X.
Those who sign the letter are urging Sequoia to denounce Maguire’s comments and to apologize to Mamdani and the Muslim founders. They also hope to allow an independent investigation into Maguire’s actions over the past two years and post a “zero tolerance policy on hate speech and religious bias.”
They are asking the company to respond publicly by July 14, or “we are calling for broader public disclosures, media outreach and network mobilization to ensure accountability,” the letter said.
Sequoia declined to comment. Maguire did not respond to requests for comment, but wrote in a post about the letter on Wednesday, “You can try everything you want to shut me up, but it just burns me.”
Among the signers are Mudassir Sheikha, CEO of Ride-Hailing Service Careem and Amr Awadallah, CEO of AI Startup Vectara. Also, the list includes Abubakar Abid. AbubakarAbid is involved in machine learning embraces supported by Sequoia. There is also Ahmed Sabbah, CEO of Telda, the financial technology startup that Sequoia first invested in four years ago.
At least three founders of the startup that have passed the Startup Accelerator Program Y Combinator have added their names to the letter.
Sequoia as a company is unfamiliar with politics. Doug Leone, who will lead the company until 2022 and remains a partner, is a longtime Republican donor who supported Trump in the 2024 election. Following Trump’s victory in November, Leone said, “To all Trump voters: You don’t need to be in the shadows anymore… You’re the majority!!!”
By contrast, Leone’s predecessor, Mike Moritz, is a democratic mega-donor who criticized Trump, denounced his tech industry colleagues in August as he lined up behind Republican candidates. In the Financial Times opinion, Moritz writes that Trump’s tech supporters are “making a big mistake.”
“It’s doubtful if they want him as part of the investment syndicate they organized,” Moritz, who resigned from Sequoia in 2023, resigned more than a decade after giving up on his management role at the company. “Why do they dismiss his recent criminal beliefs as nothing more than a politically inspired witch hunt over the mistakes of protecting a simple book?”
Neither Leone nor Moritz returned a message seeking comment.
Sequoia’s current lead partner, Roelof Botha, has taken a more neutral attitude. At an event last July, Bosa said that Sequoia as a partnership would not “take a political perspective,” adding that she was “not a registered member of either party.” Boelof said, “We are proud of the fact that many partners were able to express respected individual views along the way, and gave them that freedom.”
Maguire has long been open to his political views. He said last year on X, “I just donated $300,000 to President Trump.”
Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has gained more widespread rage from many in the technology and business community since beating New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the June primary.
– CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.
Watch: SpaceX’s rating is probably even conservative, says Shaun Maguire of Sequoia
