Update (May 4, 2026, 2:30 p.m.): The story below has been updated to reflect Greg Brockman’s testimony at trial that his stake in OpenAI is worth at least $20 billion.
Last year, the GOP’s legacy donor class and its newer crop of tech and finance billionaires found common cause: writing enormous checks to support Donald Trump.
In February, billionaire Kelcy Warren and his fossil fuel pipeline company, Energy Transfer, each sent $12.5 million to MAGA Inc., a Trump-aligned super PAC. Just a few months later, OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman and his wife cut checks for $12.5 million each.
That makes Warren and Brockman the biggest individual donors to MAGA Inc. But the roster is deeper than two names and four eight-figure checks. Forbes counts at least 24 billionaires or billionaire families who have given over $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings covering through the end of March. (Brockman is not currently on Forbes’ list of billionaires, but he did claim to be one in testimony related to Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI). Collectively, these ten-figure club members, plus Brockman, donated $118 million, about a third of the $350 million war chest MAGA Inc has built.
After Warren and Brockman, it reads like the donor roll from every modern Republican spending spree: Wall Street trader Jeff Yass ($16 million), private equity tycoon Stephen Schwarzman ($5 million) and Estee Lauder heir Ronald Lauder ($5 million), among others.
Money in, access out
In a few cases, financial support opened doors to actual positions in Donald Trump’s administration. Two billionaires fit that mold: one-time DOGE head Elon Musk ($5 million) and Small Business Administration leader Kelly Loeffler ($5 million, including $2.5 million from her husband Jeff Sprecher). There are also non-billionaire donors who later landed roles, like NASA administrator Jared Isaacman ($2 million), ambassador to Singapore Anjani Sinha ($1 million) and nominee to be ambassador to Hungary Benjamin Landa ($5 million).
For others, the donations to MAGA Inc. came before or alongside favorable policy moves from the administration. Take Brockman’s OpenAI, which has built a close relationship with the Trump administration and recently swooped in to capture a federal contract following a row between AI rival Anthropic and the Department of Defense. Or consider the crypto industry. Three of the top billionaire MAGA Inc. donors—the Winklevoss twins ($1 million each) and venture capitalist Tim Draper ($1 million)—made fortunes in crypto, and the single largest donor of any type is Crypto.com’s parent company Foris Dax, which has cut four checks totaling $35 million. Crypto firms have pushed hard for lighter regulation—and Trump’s own crypto ventures, which have made him some $1.8 billion wealthier since his reelection, don’t exactly make that pitch harder to deliver.
Trump’s off-ballot money machine
A Trump-aligned group raising this kind of money for the midterms doesn’t have much of a modern analogue. The other two presidents in office since the Supreme Court ushered in the era of unlimited money in politics with its 2010 Citizens United decision, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, did both have closely affiliated super PACs. Priorities USA Action and Future Forward, respectively, could, like all super PACs, take unlimited donations but were barred from coordinating with candidates. They raised big sums during presidential cycles, then mostly faded during midterms, in part because the incentive is obvious: The principal (the president) isn’t on the ballot.
Trump broke that pattern. After Make America Great Again, Inc. raised over $400 million for his 2024 reelection effort, a rebranded MAGA, Inc. has since hauled in nearly that much again—despite Trump, constitutionally, not being a candidate again. “I don’t think past presidents have had such large fundraising apparatuses that are separate from the traditional party committees,” said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the election forecasting site Inside Elections, in December. “Particularly a president who is supposed to be a lame duck.”
Despite stockpiling cash, MAGA Inc. has barely spent it. There have been eight special House elections since Trump took office, for example, but only one has caught MAGA Inc,’s interest, leading them to drop $1.7 million in a closer-than-expected race in Tennessee.
So what is all this money for?
The obvious answer is a midterm blitz: ads, turnout operations, candidate support—the whole modern super PAC playbook. If MAGA Inc. actually deploys its roughly $350 million nationally, it could be a powerful weapon for propping up Republicans who are behind in the polls.
But there’s a second, more Trumpian answer: you don’t have to spend the money to use it.
“One thing they can do is just sit on it and glare at Republicans in vulnerable seats and say ‘Do you want our support or not?’” says University of Southern California Gould School of Law professor Abby Wood, whose research focuses on campaign finance law. She added that some super PACs have historically employed exactly that strategy—build a war chest and hold onto it as a threat. “Based on the way [Trump’s] been talking,” RacetotheWH’s Logan Phillips notes, “he cares more about enforcing loyalty than he does about winning general election races.”
Indeed, Trump seems to have already written the upcoming elections off, telling Reuters in January that “It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms.”
Should MAGA Inc. follow his lead, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s kept cash around for later. After losing the 2020 election, he was booted from the White House but raised and held onto millions in donor money—then used it to pay his lawyers until he won the presidency again.
Forbes reviewed all contributions over $200,000 to MAGA Inc. since January 1, 2025. Billionaires listed below are those who have contributed at least $1 million.
1. (tie) Kelcy Warren: $25 million
Net worth: $8.1 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Warren’s $12.5 million check is the largest political donation he’s ever made, according to FEC records. His company, Energy Transfer, was behind the controversial $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline approved via a Trump executive order in 2017.
1. (tie) Greg and Anna Brockman: $25 million
Net worth: At least $20 billion, per testimony in court
Source of wealth: OpenAI
In addition to Brockman’s donations, Tools For Humanity, a company started by Brockman’s OpenAI confounder Sam Altman, gave MAGA Inc. $5 million.
3. Jeff Yass: $16 million
Net worth: $67.4 billion
Source of wealth: Trading, investments
Yass gave $1 million to MAGA Inc. on January 17 and $15 million on March 6. Both checks were followed shortly by delays of the federal ban on TikTok, which Yass holds a stake in.
4 and 5. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss: $6.4 million
Net worth: $2.7 billion each
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
In addition to checks for $1 million each, the brothers’ crypto company, Gemini, donated another $4.4 million to MAGA Inc.
6. Mat Ishbia: $5.8 million
Net worth: $8.1 billion
Source of wealth: Mortgage lender
Forbes is counting donations from United Wholesale Mortgage and two related companies as from Ishbia, given his majority stake in the firm. He backed Trump’s proposal for 50-year mortgages.
7. (tie) Stephen Schwarzman: $5 million
Net worth: $39.8 billion
Source of wealth: Investments
Schwarzman didn’t support Trump in the 2024 primaries, but came around in the end. Most recently, he attended a state dinner celebrating a visit by Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
7. (tie) Elon Musk: $5 million
Net worth: $776 billion
Source of wealth: Tesla, SpaceX
The world’s richest man had a falling out with Trump, but seems to have patched things up. This cycle he’s already dumped tens of millions back into America PAC, his vehicle for political spending that previously injected over $260 million into the 2024 campaign.
7. (tie) Ron Lauder: $5 million
Net worth: $4.9 billion
Source of wealth: Estee Lauder
Lauder reportedly gave Trump the idea of taking over Greenland during his first term, a notion that has tested the transatlantic alliance since Trump retook the White House and began issuing threats against the Danish territory.
7. (tie) Jeff Sprecher and Kelly Loeffler: $5 million
Net worth: $1.2 billion
Source of wealth: Stock exchanges
Loeffler got into politics with an appointment to fill a vacant Georgia Senate seat in 2019. She lost her bid for a full term in 2020, but stayed in Trump's good graces and won an appointment to head the Small Business Administration in 2025.
11. Marc Andreessen: $3 million
Net worth: $1.9 billion
Source of wealth: Venture capital investing
Andreessen’s cofounder Ben Horowitz, not a member of Forbes’ billionaire list, kicked in another $3 million as well.
12. (tie) Hess family: $2 million
Net worth: $1.9 billion (as of 2015)
Source of wealth: Oil
Fossil fuels titan Hess Corp’s CEO, John B. Hess, and his wife Susan backed MAGA Inc. with $1 million each. In 2025, Hess was acquired by Chevron, which has been heavily involved in oil extraction in Venezuela both before and after the U.S. raid to capture Nicolas Maduro in January.
12. (tie) Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson: $2 million
Net worth: $8.7 billion
Source of wealth: In-N-Out Burger
The West Coast hamburger chain heir’s $2 million check to MAGA Inc. is her only federal contribution this cycle, according to FEC records.
14. Stefan and Elizabeth Brodie: $1.5 million
Net worth: $1.7 billion
Source of wealth: Purolite
Stefan cofounded a resin manufacturing business that sold for billions in 2021, applied for a pardon for old Cuba embargo violations in 2023 but was rebuffed by the Biden administration. No pardon has been forthcoming from President Trump—yet.
15. (tie) Jan Koum: $1 million
Net worth: $17.2 billion
Source of wealth: WhatsApp
15. (tie) Thomas Tull: $1 million
Net worth: $5.3 billion
Source of wealth: Movies, investments
15. (tie) Igor Tulchinsky: $1 million
Net worth: $1.7 billion
Source of wealth: Hedge funds
15. (tie) Bijan Tehrani: $1 million
Net worth: $2.2 billion
Source of wealth: Online casino
15. (tie) Warren Stephens: $1 million
Net worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: Investment banking
15. (tie) Jeffrey Skoll: $1 million
Net worth: $5.5 billion
Source of wealth: EBay
15. (tie) Jerry Jones: $1 million
Net worth: $19.9 billion
Source of wealth: Dallas Cowboys
15. (tie) Antonio Gracias: $1 million
Net worth: $4.2 billion
Source of wealth: Investments
15. (tie) Tim Draper: $1 million
Net worth: $2.2 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
15. (tie) Harold Hamm + family: $1 million
Net worth: $16 billion
Source of wealth: Oil and gas
15. (tie) Todd Boehly: $1 million
Net worth: $9.3 billion
Source of wealth: Finance