TikTok funder Sequoia investigated by Congress for Chinese investments

TikTok investor Sequoia Capital has aroused suspicions in Congress over its recent financial support of multiple Chinese tech companies.

by CHRIS CASTLE of Music Tech Policy

It was only a matter of time. According to a press release, Congress is investigating Silicon Valley’s uber venture capital fund Sequoia Capital because Sequoia’s “investments in [People’s Republic of China] entities have included certain investments that contributed to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] human rights abuses, the PRC’s military modernization, and its overall efforts to undermine U.S. technological leadership…Those deals support the CCP’s goals of ensuring technological supremacy and increasing the United States’ dependence on the PRC in critical technologies.” 

The transactions that Congress is looking into specifically include Investments and fundraising for ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok as well as:

• Investments in EverSec, a Chinese company developing AI for the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warning platforms
• Helping raise $700 million for 4Paradigm, a Chinese company building AI for PLA battlefield programs
• Investments in DJI, a Chinese drone maker that facilitates the CCP’s surveillance and genocide of Uyghurs Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region 
• Investments in DeepGlint, a Chinese facial recognition firm blacklisted by the U.S. government and used by the CCP to track Uyghur Muslims and surveil the Chinese population
• As many as 40 investments in Chinese semiconductor companies since 2020

Remember–Watergate started with a piece of tape on a door.

Read the letter here.