Shaun Maguire is an American venture capitalist and political activist, currently a partner at Sequoia Capital.
Early life and education
In an interview with the Caltech Heritage Project, Maguire reported that he earned a 1.8 GPA in high school and failed his Algebra 2 course, and that his admission to Stanford University depended on letters of recommendation.
Maguire received his PhD in physics from Caltech.
Maguire has identified as
Jewish, with ancestral ties to early
Jewish settlers in California.
Career
In 2010, Maguire cofounded
Escape Dynamics.
In 2012, Maguire co-founded cyber firm Expanse (previously called Qadium), which was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2020 for over $1 billion.
Political activism
Maguire served as an advisor to President
Donald Trump in his second term, assisting with intelligence community picks.
Maguire manages the investments of
Sequoia Capital in
Elon Musk's companies, including
SpaceX, The Boring Company, xAI, and
Twitter, and assisted Musk during his tenure at DOGE.
Maguire supported Trump during the 2024 election.
Mamdani comments
On July 4, 2025, Maguire posted on X that New York City mayoral candidate
Zohran Mamdani “...comes from a culture that lies about everything. It's literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda. The West will learn this lesson the hard way."
Maguire's comments were widely criticized as
racist and
Islamophobic, including by
Dilawar Syed, former deputy administrator of the United States Small Business Administration.
Saudi entrepreneur Hisham Al-Falih criticized Maguire's comments, describing them as "appalling".
Maguire defended his tweet on July 7, 2025.
Following the post, a petition signed by 900 tech leaders circulated calling for Sequoia Capital to condemn Maguire's comments, investigate, and apologize.
On July 8, 2025, an open letter in support of Maguire circulated.
