Zohran Mamdani’s election has billionaires searching for answers. One of them thinks he’s found an answer—from another billionaire. The 34-year-old democratic socialist’s definitive victory in Tuesday’s New York City mayoral election brings an odd fact reality to life. As JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon mused onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women summit in late October, “it is odd to have the bastion of American capitalism with a socialist” coming to the mayor’s office. Still, Dimon has been open to engaging with Mamdani, unlike many of America’s wealthiest business leaders, who put an estimated $22 million behind the effort to defeat the upstart from Queens and are now grappling with the fallout.
To be sure, some of New York’s elite in finance and tech are now offering their congratulations to Mamdami after having poured millions into keeping him away from the mayor’s office. One vocal critic, activist investor Bill Ackman congratulated the mayor-elect Tuesday after having reportedly donated $1.75 million to oppose him. It’s an open question just how leftist Mamdani will be as he governs, but Dimon noted in conversation with Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell that “he was part of that socialist democratic thing, which literally is more Marxist than socialist—and I read it—but I don’t know what he believes in that.”
One wealthy elite grappling with ostensibly spreading socialism is Chamath Palihapitiya, the Silicon Valley venture capital billionaire and former “SPAC king,” known for his investments in special purpose acquisition companies. He recirculated on X a 2020 note from Thiel that argued, in Palihapitiya’s words, about how “too much student debt and lack of affordable housing keeps young people with negative capital for too long. And without a stake in the capitalist system, they will turn against it.”
In the 2020 email correspondence to Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Andreessen, Thiel wrote that “if one has no stake in the capitalist system, then one may well turn against it.” Thiel also implied that he was taking the millennial generation’s then-well-publicized turn toward socialism seriously, writing of a “broken generational compact.”
Mamdami swept New York City’s mayoral election this week, in part thanks to broad support from young voters. An estimated 78% of voters ages 18 to 29 cast their ballot for Mamdami, according to exit polls. His success has brought renewed attention to high rent prices in New York City. The median rent in the city stands at $3,599 per month as of the third quarter, according to Realtor.com, an amount representing around 55% of the typical household’s income.
Seemingly striking a chord with his young coalition are proposals to tackle New York City’s historic unaffordability. Mamdami’s platform included ideas such as freezing rents on about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, launching city-wide universal childcare, and increasing taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents to potentially raise $4 billion for social initiatives.
Even more moderate victors from Tuesday’s elections have stressed affordability. New Jersey’s Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, from a more centrist wing of the party, said after her victory, “The reason I was so focused on affordability issues is because my communities are focused on affordability issues and how they’re going to be successful.”
President Trump himself argued on Wednesday that the U.S. has “the greatest economy right now,” speaking onstage at Miami’s America Business Forum. “A lot of people don’t see that,” he said, adding that if people don’t talk about how great things are, “then you can do not so well in elections.”
Thiel himself made no public statements on Mamdami but has previously supported Republican candidates including President Trump with a $1 million contribution during his first run for office in 2016. He later stepped down his political activity after the 2022 midterms but has since returned to political advocacy with donations to the GOP and Republican candidates.
While Mamdami’s win represents a leap forward for progressive politicians, it’s too soon to say definitively that young people are broadly leaning leftward. President Trump made major strides with young people in 2024, capturing 46% of voters ages 18 to 29, compared to 36% when he ran in 2020, according to the Tufts Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Still, Thiel’s 2020 note made clear that any rejection of the U.S. capitalist system in young people should not be taken lightly.
“I would be the last person to advocate for socialism. But when 70% of Millennials say they are pro-socialist, we need to do better than simply dismiss them by saying that they are stupid or entitled or brainwashed; we should try and understand why,” he wrote.
