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Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the Post, Andreessen described MIT and Stanford (which I attended two decades ago) as \u201cmainly political lobbying operations fighting American innovation.\u201d He also reportedly complained that Stanford \u201cforced my wife out [as chair of its Center on Philanthropy and Civil society] without a second thought, a decision that will cost them something like $5 billion in future donations.\u201d<\/p>\n In a separate message that did not mention a specific school, Andreessen reportedly said that universities \u201cdeclared war on 70% of the country and now they\u2019re going to pay the price.\u201d He took aim at \u201cDEI and immigration,\u201d which he reportedly described as \u201ctwo forms of discrimination\u201d that are \u201cpolitically lethal.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Andreessen and his Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz both said that they were supporting Donald Trump\u2019s campaign to return to the White House<\/a>. Andreessen\u2019s allies have subsequently taken roles in the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to a16z for comment. Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital has remained silent<\/a> following partner Shaun Maguire\u2019s criticism of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, as an \u201cIslamist\u201d who \u201ccomes from a culture that lies about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n