Google’s Next ‘Moonshot’? Making Bernie Sanders President

Parent company Alphabet is the presidential candidate’s biggest donor, topping a list packed with tech giants

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Google invests millions of dollars in off-the-wall projects like self-driving cars and space balloons, called “moonshots.” Electing a socialist U.S. president may be next.

The tech titan’s parent company Alphabet is the top donor to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, according to a ranking of federal election data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Alphabet tops a list packed with technology giants. CRP’s analysis, which includes contributions to a candidate’s own campaign committee as well as any super PACs or hybrid PACs working on their behalf (Sanders doesn’t have a super PAC), reveals four of Sanders’ top five donors are tech companies, with Microsoft, Apple and Amazon joining Alphabet. (The University of California rounds out the top five.)

At nearly $99,000, Alphabet’s contributions to his campaign are roughly triple that of his next biggest donor in CRP’s data.

IBM, Intel and Facebook also pop up in Sanders’ top 20.

In line with Sanders’ public perception as a candidate who isn’t as easily bought as most politicians, the biggest contribution to his campaign pales when compared with those made to his chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

The same data for the 2016 election cycle show Clinton’s top contributor is Soros Fund Management, the investment company founded by progressive billionaire George Soros, at more than $7 million.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, workers at the five biggest technology companies in Silicon Valley quadrupled their contributions to Sanders’ campaign in the last three months of 2015 compared with the first three months of last year. The $105,000 Sanders raised there at the end of the year is nearly $10,000 more than Clinton, whose fundraising has held steady, according to the report.

Tuesday, Sanders won New Hampshire’s primary, claiming his first victory in the 2016 presidential race.

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