Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist who helped bankroll TPM, donates to Romney super PAC

Among the 150-plus major donors disclosed by Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney: Marc Andreessen, the Netscape co-founder who's become one of the biggest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. His firm, Andreessen Horowitz, manages more than $2.7 billion, including a $1.5 billion round of funding that was announced earlier this week. (The firm has investments in a slew of tech start-ups, including Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter.)

According to Restore Our Future's most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission, Andreessen donated $50,000 the group, adding to $30.2 million the group raised through Dec. 31. The PAC has spent more than $17 million on the 2012 campaign to date--and more than $16 million attacking Newt Gingrich.

Andreessen's contribution to Restore Our Future was scant in comparison to the multi-million dollar donations made by other private equity and hedge fund executives--including John Paulson, founder of Paulson & Company, and Ed Conard, former top executive at Bain Capital. (Sam Zell, the chairman and former chief executive of the bankrupt Tribune Company, donated $50,000 to Restore Our Future, too.)

Andreessen did not immediately return an email from Yahoo News seeking comment.

In 2009, Andreessen personally invested in Talking Points Memo, the liberal-leaning political news site founded by Josh Marshall. Andreessen, who is a member of Facebook's board of directors, also contributed to the FB PAC launched by the social network last year.

Of course, Restore Our Future isn't the only super PAC supported by boldface names. Included among the major donors to Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting Barack Obama: Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg ($2 million), Stephen Spielberg ($100,000) and "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams and his wife ($50,000 each).

To put those donations in perspective, consider that Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow--the super PAC started by Stephen Colbert--has raised more than $1 million with just one person contributing more than $5,000.

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