Posts
The Same Players
How Gilded Age Fortunes Became Venture Capital, Venture Capital Became Silicon Valley, and Silicon Valley Is Now Funding Space
THE ENDLESS FRONTIER: Public Money, Private Empires — Post 7 | February 2026
"Different Frontier. Same Extraction. Since 1850."
Post 1: The Pattern — 200 years, one mechanism
Post 2: The Railroad Theft — 175 million acres, the birth of extraction
Post 3: The Oil Extraction — The 1872 law still giving away public resources today
Post 4: The Internet Heist — DARPA built it, the CIA funded Google, $11 trillion captured
Post 5: The Defense Machine — The word Eisenhower removed, 70 years of cost-plus
Post 6: The Space Grab — The biggest extraction in human history, happening now
Post 7: The Same Players ← YOU ARE HERE
Post 8: What Breaks the Cycle — Three attempts, one possibility
How the Gilded Age Fortunes Invented Venture Capital
The venture capital industry — the financial engine of Silicon Valley — was invented by the heirs of Gilded Age extraction fortunes. This is documented history, not theory.
In the 1930s, according to Steve Blank's documented history of Silicon Valley (published on Stanford's platform and cited extensively in business history research), the heirs to 19th-century American fortunes — Rockefeller, Whitney, Bessemer/Phipps — began making personal investments in new and risky ventures. This was the birth of what would become the venture capital industry.
The Rockefeller line:
Laurance Rockefeller (grandson of Standard Oil's founder) founded Rockefeller Brothers Inc. in 1946 with a personal check for $1.5 million. The firm invested in early aviation, electronics, and technology companies. In 1969, the firm renamed itself Venrock — a portmanteau of "venture" and "Rockefeller."
Venrock's most famous investment: Apple Computer. In 1978, Venrock invested in Apple alongside Arthur Rock (the pioneering venture capitalist who had earlier funded Intel). Venrock's Apple investment turned $300,000 into tens of millions — and helped fund the company that would become the world's first $3 trillion corporation.
The Carnegie line:
Henry Phipps Jr. was Andrew Carnegie's closest business partner and co-founder of Carnegie Steel. When Carnegie sold the company to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million, Phipps received approximately $50 million (equivalent to roughly $1.8 billion today). Phipps established Bessemer Securities to manage his family's wealth — named after the Bessemer steel process that made Carnegie Steel dominant.
Bessemer Securities evolved into Bessemer Venture Partners, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms. Bessemer's portfolio includes: LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twilio, Shopify, Skype, Yelp, and dozens more technology companies built on publicly-funded internet infrastructure.
Carnegie steel money → Bessemer Venture Partners → LinkedIn, Pinterest, Shopify.
The Carnegie fortune — built on railroad contracts (Post 2) and public mineral access (Post 3) — is funding the technology companies of the internet era (Post 4) to this day.
SOURCE: Steve Blank, “Secret History of Silicon Valley” (Stanford lecturer,
published Stanford/Substack, extensively cited in business history research)
ROCKEFELLER LINE:
John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil, built on public mineral rights + railroad infrastructure)
→ Laurance Rockefeller (grandson)
→ Rockefeller Brothers Inc. (1946, $1.5M personal check)
→ Venrock (renamed 1969)
→ Apple Computer (1978 investment, $300K → tens of millions)
→ Apple 2024 market cap: $3+ trillion
CARNEGIE LINE:
Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Steel, built on railroad contracts + public mineral access)
→ Henry Phipps Jr. (Carnegie’s business partner, ~$50M from 1901 sale)
→ Bessemer Securities (named after Bessemer steel process)
→ Bessemer Venture Partners
→ LinkedIn, Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Skype, Yelp, Instagram (early investor)
WHITNEY LINE:
Jock Whitney (heir to Whitney family fortune, connected to Gilded Age wealth)
→ J.H. Whitney Company (1946, $5M personal check)
→ First use of term “venture capital” (Whitney coined “private adventure capital”)
→ Early technology and media investments
THE DOCUMENTED FACT:
The venture capital industry — financial engine of Silicon Valley —
was invented by heirs of Gilded Age extraction fortunes.
Railroad money. Oil money. Steel money. → Apple, LinkedIn, Pinterest.
This is not a vague claim about “the same class of people.”
This is the specific, documented flow of the same capital
from public land grants in 1862 to $3 trillion tech companies today.
J.P. Morgan: The Financier of Every Frontier
If one institution threads through every frontier in this series, it is J.P. Morgan — and its direct institutional descendant, JPMorgan Chase.
Railroads (Post 2): J.P. Morgan was the primary financier of American railroad consolidation in the 1880s-1890s. He reorganized and refinanced dozens of bankrupt railroads (a process called "Morganization"), creating the dominant rail networks of the Gilded Age. He personally brokered the deal that created U.S. Steel — buying Carnegie's steel empire for $480 million in 1901, the first billion-dollar corporate transaction in history.
Oil (Post 3): Morgan's bank financed Standard Oil's trust formation and the operations of oil companies throughout the Gilded Age. The Morgan-Rockefeller relationship was the financial axis of 19th-century American industrial capitalism.
Defense (Post 5): JPMorgan (Morgan's institutional successor) financed the defense industry throughout the 20th century. The bank's relationships with Lockheed, Boeing, and other major defense contractors made it the primary financial intermediary between public defense spending and private corporate operations.
Internet (Post 4): JPMorgan Chase was a primary underwriter of the major tech IPOs of the 1990s-2000s — Google, Amazon, Facebook — converting the value built on public internet infrastructure into private wealth through public offerings. In 2004, JPMorgan co-managed Google's IPO.
Space (Post 6): JPMorgan Chase has financed SpaceX debt rounds and is positioned to underwrite SpaceX's eventual IPO — which would be one of the largest public offerings in history, converting public-contract-funded valuation into public market wealth.
One institution. Every frontier. For 140 years. Extracting fees and returns at each transfer point between public investment and private ownership.
RAILROADS (1880s-1900s):
“Morganization” of bankrupt railroads → dominant rail monopolies
1901: Bought Carnegie Steel for $480M → created U.S. Steel
First billion-dollar corporation in history. Morgan’s fee: $12.5M
OIL (1880s-1910s):
Financed Standard Oil trust formation and operations
Morgan-Rockefeller axis: Financial center of Gilded Age capitalism
DEFENSE (1940s-present):
JPMorgan (institutional successor): Primary defense industry financier
Relationships with Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop
INTERNET (1990s-2000s):
Co-managed Google IPO (2004)
Underwriter for major tech public offerings
Converted public-infrastructure-built value → public market wealth
SPACE (2010s-present):
Financed SpaceX debt rounds
Positioned to underwrite SpaceX IPO
(Estimated: One of largest IPOs in history)
140 YEARS. EVERY FRONTIER. ONE INSTITUTION.
Extracting fees at every transfer point:
Public investment → private wealth → public market → more private wealth
Today: JPMorgan Chase, largest bank in United States
Direct institutional descendant of J.P. Morgan’s Gilded Age bank
Built on fees extracted at every frontier transition since 1880.
Stanford University: The Institutional Chain from Railroad to Google
We documented the Stanford connection in Post 4. But in the context of "the same players," it deserves its full treatment.
The chain is specific and documented:
1862: Pacific Railway Act grants Central Pacific Railroad — co-founded and controlled by Leland Stanford — millions of acres of public land grants and government bond guarantees.
1869: Central Pacific completes transcontinental railroad. Stanford's fortune is made.
1885: Leland Stanford founds Stanford University using his railroad fortune. The founding grant: $20 million and 8,800 acres of land (much of it appreciated from the railroad era).
1950s-1990s: Stanford becomes DARPA's primary West Coast research partner. Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman deliberately cultivates relationships between Stanford, military agencies, and defense contractors — creating what he called a "community of technical scholars." Stanford is the institutional nexus that connects public defense funding to private technology companies.
1995: Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page receive NSF and intelligence community grants (Post 4). Their research becomes Google.
1998: Google founded. Stanford licenses PageRank patent to Google. Stanford receives equity. Stanford earns $336 million from its Google stake.
Stanford's current endowment (2024): $36.5 billion.
That $36.5 billion endowment — one of the largest university endowments in the world — is the accumulated compounding of railroad land grant wealth (1862) through defense research relationships through tech company equity stakes. It funds the next generation of researchers who will produce the next generation of companies that will be funded by the next generation of venture capital descended from Gilded Age fortunes.
The compound interest of 160 years of frontier extraction.
1862: Source
Pacific Railway Act → Central Pacific Railroad → Leland Stanford
Public land grants + bond guarantees → private railroad fortune
1885: Institution Built
Stanford fortune → Stanford University ($20M founding grant)
Purpose: “Promote the public welfare”
Reality: Institutional vehicle for next frontier capture
1950s-70s: Defense Bridge
Dean Terman cultivates Stanford-military-defense contractor nexus
DARPA research relationships: Stanford is primary West Coast partner
Companies spinning out: HP (1939), Varian Associates, others
1995-1998: Internet Capture
Brin + Page: NSF/intelligence community grants (Post 4)
Research becomes Google
Stanford licenses PageRank → receives Google equity
Stanford earns: $336 million from Google stake
2024: Endowment
Stanford endowment: $36.5 billion
Source: Railroad wealth → defense relationships → tech equity → compounding
WHAT IT FUNDS NOW:
Next generation of researchers
→ Next generation of companies
→ Next generation of venture capital
→ Next frontier extraction
The compound interest of 160 years of public resource capture.
Reinvested into the infrastructure for the next capture.
The Venture Capital Bridge: Defense Money to Tech Money
Silicon Valley's own historians have documented the precise mechanism by which defense money became tech money. Steve Blank — Stanford lecturer and entrepreneur — published a comprehensive history titled "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" documenting the connections most Silicon Valley companies prefer not to discuss.
His findings, supported by documented evidence:
The technology startups spinning out of Stanford's engineering department in the 1950s had no "risk capital" — they had customers, in the form of purchase orders from government contractors, military services, and intelligence agencies. The first Silicon Valley companies weren't funded by venture capital. They were funded by defense contracts.
Fairchild Semiconductor — founded in 1957 by the "Traitorous Eight" who left Shockley Semiconductor — built its early business on defense contracts. Fairchild's microchips were used in the Minuteman missile program. NASA's Apollo program. The technology that enabled the integrated circuit revolution was funded by the Department of Defense.
Fairchild spawned Intel (Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, 1968). Intel's early revenue came significantly from defense and government contracts. The microprocessor — the foundation of the personal computer industry — was developed with defense funding as a significant component of the market.
And the venture capital that funded Fairchild and Intel came from: Arthur Rock, who had learned from George Doriot (the "father of venture capital" who had worked for the military). Rock had also worked at Hayden Stone, where he arranged the original Fairchild deal. The venture capital industry's foundational practices were developed around companies whose primary customers were the military and intelligence agencies.
Defense money built the first Silicon Valley companies. Gilded Age family money (Rockefeller, Carnegie/Phipps, Whitney) built the first venture capital funds. The funds invested in the defense-funded companies. When those companies went public, both the venture funds and the Gilded Age family offices captured the returns. The capital accumulated. And it funded the next generation.
SOURCE: Steve Blank, “Secret History of Silicon Valley” (Stanford)
STEP 1: Defense funds first Silicon Valley companies (1950s)
Startups from Stanford engineering: No risk capital
Revenue source: “Purchase orders from government contractors,
military services, or intelligence agencies”
First Silicon Valley companies = defense contractors in civilian clothing
STEP 2: Fairchild Semiconductor (1957)
Founded by “Traitorous Eight” with Arthur Rock arranging financing
Early revenue: Minuteman missile program, Apollo program
Technology: First practical integrated circuits (publicly-funded demand)
STEP 3: Intel (1968)
Founded by Moore + Noyce (from Fairchild)
Venture funded by Arthur Rock
Early revenue: Defense and government contracts
Microprocessor: Foundation of personal computer revolution
STEP 4: Gilded Age VC enters (1946-1960s)
Rockefeller family money (Venrock) → invests alongside Rock in tech companies
Carnegie money (Bessemer) → invests in tech companies
Defense-funded companies + Gilded Age capital = Silicon Valley
STEP 5: Returns compound (1970s-1990s)
Tech IPOs: Gilded Age VCs capture returns
New generation of venture funds: Sequoia, KPCB, a16z → funded by LP wealth
from Gilded Age families, pension funds built on defense contractor returns
THE COMPLETE CHAIN:
Railroad land grants (1862) → Gilded Age fortunes →
Venture capital (1946) → Defense-funded tech (1950s) →
Silicon Valley (1970s-90s) → $11T market cap →
Space investments (2010s-present)
One continuous stream of capital. 160 years. Every frontier.
The Bezos Proof: One Man, The Complete Pattern
Jeff Bezos is the single most complete proof of the "same players" thesis — because he demonstrates the entire pattern within one lifetime, across three frontiers simultaneously.
Frontier 4 (Internet):
- Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 on publicly-funded internet infrastructure (DARPA/NSF)
- Amazon built on: DARPA protocols, NSF backbone, GPS (military), publicly-funded university CS talent
- Amazon market cap 2024: $2 trillion
Frontier 4 → Defense/Intelligence:
- 2013: Amazon AWS wins $600 million CIA cloud contract
- The same intelligence community that funded Google's algorithm (Post 4) now pays Amazon to manage intelligence data
- 2021: Amazon wins JEDI cloud contract replacement (NSA, classified value)
Frontier 6 (Space):
- Bezos funds Blue Origin with Amazon profits (built on public internet)
- Blue Origin receives NASA contracts for lunar missions (public money)
- Blue Origin wins contract to build private space station (to replace $150B public ISS)
- Blue Origin: Building private ownership of what the public funded
The complete Bezos extraction chain:
DARPA internet (public) → Amazon ($2T private) → CIA contract ($600M public) → Blue Origin (private) → NASA contracts (public) → Private space stations (private ownership)
Public subsidy enables private company enables public contract enables private space company enables public space contract enables private space ownership.
The pattern doesn't require 160 years and multiple generations when a single individual can cycle through three frontiers in one career.
This is the acceleration you identified. The same players, but now a single person can participate in multiple frontier extractions simultaneously — because the frontiers themselves are compressing in time.
- Railroad era: 50 years (1850-1900)
- Oil era: 40 years (1870-1911)
- Defense era: 80 years (1940-present)
- Internet era: 30 years (1994-present)
- Space era: Already overlapping with internet (2003-present)
The frontiers are no longer sequential. They're simultaneous. And the same individuals now participate in multiple frontiers at once.
FRONTIER 4 (INTERNET):
Amazon built on DARPA/NSF internet, GPS (military), public university talent
Amazon 2024 market cap: $2 trillion
Public subsidy basis: Never compensated
FRONTIER 4 → INTELLIGENCE:
2013: CIA awards Amazon AWS $600M cloud contract
Circle: CIA funded Google algorithm (1995) → CIA pays Amazon (2013)
Same intelligence community. Two different payments. Both public money.
FRONTIER 6 (SPACE):
Bezos funds Blue Origin with Amazon profits
Blue Origin: NASA lunar contracts, private station contract
Private station: Replaces $150B public ISS
Public pays rent to Blue Origin to use what it funded Blue Origin to build
THE COMPLETE BEZOS CHAIN:
Public internet (DARPA) →
Amazon private ($2T) →
CIA contract ($600M public) →
Blue Origin private →
NASA contracts (public) →
Private space stations (private ownership)
VANDERBILT-ROCKEFELLER-CARNEGIE (comparison):
Three people. Two frontiers. Two generations. (~40 years)
BEZOS:
One person. Three frontiers. One lifetime. (~30 years)
The extraction is not just continuing. It is accelerating.
The players are consolidating. The frontiers are overlapping.
The scale is compounding faster than at any point in 200 years.
The Musk Proof: The Pattern Reaches Its Logical Conclusion
Elon Musk's career represents the pattern reaching its logical endpoint — not just participation in multiple frontier extractions simultaneously, but direct control of the government that funds the extractions.
The Musk frontier sequence:
Frontier 4 (Internet): Musk's first fortune came from Zip2 and PayPal — built on publicly-funded internet infrastructure. PayPal's $1.5 billion sale to eBay (2002) provided the capital that funded everything that followed.
Frontier 6 (Space): Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with PayPal proceeds. First NASA contract: $278 million in 2006 — before SpaceX successfully launched a rocket. Total documented public subsidy: $38 billion+.
Frontier 5 (Defense, extended): Tesla received $465 million in DOE loans (2010), state subsidies across multiple states, federal EV tax credits. SpaceX holds classified defense contracts. Neuralink and xAI are receiving or seeking public funding.
The final step (2025): DOGE. Musk moves from beneficiary of public contracts to influencer of the agencies that award them. The revolving door — identified in Post 5 as the defense machine's regulatory capture mechanism — becomes unnecessary when the contractor runs the government directly.
This is not just "the same players." This is the pattern completing itself. The extraction mechanism, refined over 160 years, has produced someone who simultaneously:
- Receives public contracts (SpaceX, Tesla)
- Controls public spectrum (Starlink/FCC)
- Influences public spending decisions (DOGE)
- Shapes public policy on the frontier he's extracting (space)
- Is not legally required to disclose conflicts of interest
Cornelius Vanderbilt controlled railroads. John D. Rockefeller controlled oil. The defense contractors controlled weapons procurement. Silicon Valley controlled information. Musk is positioned to control the physical infrastructure of the next civilization — orbital communications, space transport, energy, AI — while simultaneously holding influence over the government that regulates all of it.
The scale of the player has matched the scale of the frontier. Both are now, potentially, infinite.
Why Your Instinct Was Right
You asked at the beginning of this series: "Is it possible that all of these are connected? By the same players?"
The documents say: yes, and more specifically than you might have expected.
Not just the "same class" of players — the same actual capital, flowing in documented streams from one frontier to the next. Rockefeller oil money → Venrock → Apple. Carnegie steel money → Bessemer Venture Partners → LinkedIn, Pinterest, Shopify. J.P. Morgan's railroad financing bank → JPMorgan Chase → Google IPO → SpaceX debt financing.
The same institutions. The same accumulated wealth. Compounding through every frontier for 160 years.
And the mechanism that enabled it — identified in Post 1 and proven in Posts 2 through 6 — has never changed. Public identifies a frontier. Public funds the infrastructure. Private captures the value. New billionaires emerge. Wealth compounds into next frontier. Repeat.
The only thing that changes is the scale. And the scale has been compounding the entire time.
In Post 8, the final post, we ask: has anything ever actually stopped it? And what — if anything — could?
KEY SOURCES FOR THIS POST:
Gilded Age to VC chain: Steve Blank, “Secret History of Silicon Valley” series (Stanford/Substack), specifically Part 11: “The Rise of Risk Capital.” This source directly documents the Rockefeller-Venrock-Apple and Carnegie/Phipps-Bessemer connections. Venrock history: Venrock’s own website and Wikipedia, confirming the Apple investment and Rockefeller origins. Bessemer Venture Partners: BVP’s own portfolio documentation and Wikipedia, confirming Phipps/Carnegie origins. J.P. Morgan cross-frontier role: Historical financial records, Wikipedia JPMorgan history. Stanford chain: Post 4 sources extended, Stanford’s own financial disclosures, Google IPO documentation. Bezos chain: Public contract records (Post 6 sources extended), Blue Origin NASA contract announcements. Musk pattern: All Post 6 sources.
WHAT THIS POST PROVES:
The “same players” instinct is correct — and more specific than instinct alone would suggest. The capital is traceable. Rockefeller money is in Apple. Carnegie money is in LinkedIn and Pinterest. The same bank (JPMorgan) financed railroads and is positioned to underwrite the SpaceX IPO. This isn’t circumstantial. It’s documented financial genealogy spanning 160 years.
WHAT COMES NEXT:
Post 8 (What Breaks the Cycle) is the final post. Three times in American history, extraction was genuinely interrupted: railroad trust-busting (1890s-1900s), New Deal (1930s-40s), and the brief antitrust moment of the early 2000s. We examine what actually worked, what failed, and what — given the current scale of extraction — could theoretically change the mechanism.
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