Trump's MAGA SPAC gets $102 mn: Indian-American Asha Jadeja Motwani emerges 4th largest donor
Despite Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-H1B stance, Indian-American venture capitalist Asha Jadeja Motwani has emerged as the fourth highest donor to Trump SuperPAC MAGA Inc. Know all about her here
- Jan 3, 2026,
- Updated Jan 3, 2026 1:14 PM IST
Big names on Wall Street and from the AI and crypto world have donated huge amounts to President Donald Trump between July 1 and December 22, 2025. US President Donald Trump's super political action committee or SPAC, as it is called, raked in $102.17 million, which is part of a larger GOP effort involving mid-decade redistricting and new state voting laws.
Despite Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-H1B stance, Indian-American venture capitalist Asha Jadeja Motwani has emerged as the fourth highest donor to Trump SuperPAC MAGA Inc. Out of the total $102.17 million raised by MAGA SPAC, Motwani donated around $5 million, as per the federal campaign finance filings, which detail contributors of $100,000 or more.
Her election-to-date contribution stands at over $5.1 million, as per the filings. Other donors include Reliance Health Care, a subsidiary of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), which donated around $100,000 to Trump's SPAC.
About Asha Jadeja Motwani
Asha Jadeja Motwani is a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist who invested in more than 200 technology startups in the Bay Area. As an entrepreneur, her investing philosophy is focused on igniting young entrepreneurs into becoming change makers.
Some of her angel investments include, but are not limited to, Google, Pinterest, Yulu, Cradlewise, EdHack Technologies, Climactic, and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
She is also a limited partner in over 20 Bay Area ventures, Acumen Fund New York, and Kawasafi Fund, Africa. Her venture and philanthropic initiatives in India are motivated to break the country out of its cycle of poverty.
Believing in the power of grassroots socio-economic movements, she created MakerFest in 2013. MakerFest is a powerful network of makers and innovators who solve their communities' challenges and is currently active in Africa, India, and Brazil.
Moreover, Motwani created India's first network of dozens of Fablabs to help the manufacturing environment in India.
With help from Professor Sugata Mitra, she set up India's first self-support School in the Cloud in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, which has now grown to more than 60 locally managed and sustained 'schools in the cloud' in South Asia.
Motwani is also engaged with Stanford University's Cantor Art Museum in bringing Indian artists to the global stage. Her husband, Rajeev Motwani, was an Indian-American professor of computer science at Stanford University whose research was focused on theoretical computer science.
A recipient of the Gödel Prize in 2001, he was known for his work on the PCP theorem and its applications to hardness of approximation. Rajeev was also an avid angel investor and helped a number of startups to emerge from Stanford. He was also a board member at Google, Kaboodle, Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain Incorporated), NeoPath Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007), Tapulous, and Stanford Student Enterprises.
After he died in 2009, his family donated $1.5 million in 2011, and a building was named in his honour at his alma mater, IIT Kanpur.
Was she behind Trump's changed stance on H-1B visa?
In November 2025, she claimed that she is the one behind President Trump's stance on the H-1B visa that allows American tech companies to hire skilled workers from foreign countries, including India. She said in a post on X that she spoke with Trump and Vice President JD Vance on bringing in top talent from India into the US.
"I have spoken to both JD Vance and President Trump about the fact that people like Rajeev Motwani and I would not have come easily into the US if the current H1B drama had been playing out in the 1980s," she wrote.
She also claimed that the Trump administration is open to good ideas, but not enough HNI Indian-Americans are pursuing the issue. The Indian-American VC said, "Almost one year into batting for India in Washington, DC, I am truly shocked that there is not a single other HNI Indian American helping India in DC."
She added that Indian-American billionaires are only close to Democrats and are not doing any lobbying in DC. Later, Trump said in a FOX interview that the US needs certain types of talent when he was speaking on the H-1B issue. Amid the MAGA backlash, the Trump administration clarified that they welcome foreigners to study, train and eventually go back to their own countries.
Motwani's 5-point checklist for India amid tariff row
Just as the Trump administration imposed 50 per cent on Indian imports, Motwani laid out a 5-point list of Trump's expectations from India. She also claimed that the US President wants Indian businesses to pledge up to $500 billion in US investments.
She added, “I have several ideas and will be happy to help,” framing it as a win-win, given how beautifully the American market is growing.” She, however, gave out no source and said, "How do I know? It is up to you to guess." Besides this, she said at the time that Trump wants India to finalise purchases of Spike and Javelin missile platforms. The venture capitalist also urged India to "promise to buy more energy from the US and reduce our dependence on Russian crude".
Big names on Wall Street and from the AI and crypto world have donated huge amounts to President Donald Trump between July 1 and December 22, 2025. US President Donald Trump's super political action committee or SPAC, as it is called, raked in $102.17 million, which is part of a larger GOP effort involving mid-decade redistricting and new state voting laws.
Despite Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-H1B stance, Indian-American venture capitalist Asha Jadeja Motwani has emerged as the fourth highest donor to Trump SuperPAC MAGA Inc. Out of the total $102.17 million raised by MAGA SPAC, Motwani donated around $5 million, as per the federal campaign finance filings, which detail contributors of $100,000 or more.
Her election-to-date contribution stands at over $5.1 million, as per the filings. Other donors include Reliance Health Care, a subsidiary of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), which donated around $100,000 to Trump's SPAC.
About Asha Jadeja Motwani
Asha Jadeja Motwani is a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist who invested in more than 200 technology startups in the Bay Area. As an entrepreneur, her investing philosophy is focused on igniting young entrepreneurs into becoming change makers.
Some of her angel investments include, but are not limited to, Google, Pinterest, Yulu, Cradlewise, EdHack Technologies, Climactic, and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
She is also a limited partner in over 20 Bay Area ventures, Acumen Fund New York, and Kawasafi Fund, Africa. Her venture and philanthropic initiatives in India are motivated to break the country out of its cycle of poverty.
Believing in the power of grassroots socio-economic movements, she created MakerFest in 2013. MakerFest is a powerful network of makers and innovators who solve their communities' challenges and is currently active in Africa, India, and Brazil.
Moreover, Motwani created India's first network of dozens of Fablabs to help the manufacturing environment in India.
With help from Professor Sugata Mitra, she set up India's first self-support School in the Cloud in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, which has now grown to more than 60 locally managed and sustained 'schools in the cloud' in South Asia.
Motwani is also engaged with Stanford University's Cantor Art Museum in bringing Indian artists to the global stage. Her husband, Rajeev Motwani, was an Indian-American professor of computer science at Stanford University whose research was focused on theoretical computer science.
A recipient of the Gödel Prize in 2001, he was known for his work on the PCP theorem and its applications to hardness of approximation. Rajeev was also an avid angel investor and helped a number of startups to emerge from Stanford. He was also a board member at Google, Kaboodle, Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain Incorporated), NeoPath Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007), Tapulous, and Stanford Student Enterprises.
After he died in 2009, his family donated $1.5 million in 2011, and a building was named in his honour at his alma mater, IIT Kanpur.
Was she behind Trump's changed stance on H-1B visa?
In November 2025, she claimed that she is the one behind President Trump's stance on the H-1B visa that allows American tech companies to hire skilled workers from foreign countries, including India. She said in a post on X that she spoke with Trump and Vice President JD Vance on bringing in top talent from India into the US.
"I have spoken to both JD Vance and President Trump about the fact that people like Rajeev Motwani and I would not have come easily into the US if the current H1B drama had been playing out in the 1980s," she wrote.
She also claimed that the Trump administration is open to good ideas, but not enough HNI Indian-Americans are pursuing the issue. The Indian-American VC said, "Almost one year into batting for India in Washington, DC, I am truly shocked that there is not a single other HNI Indian American helping India in DC."
She added that Indian-American billionaires are only close to Democrats and are not doing any lobbying in DC. Later, Trump said in a FOX interview that the US needs certain types of talent when he was speaking on the H-1B issue. Amid the MAGA backlash, the Trump administration clarified that they welcome foreigners to study, train and eventually go back to their own countries.
Motwani's 5-point checklist for India amid tariff row
Just as the Trump administration imposed 50 per cent on Indian imports, Motwani laid out a 5-point list of Trump's expectations from India. She also claimed that the US President wants Indian businesses to pledge up to $500 billion in US investments.
She added, “I have several ideas and will be happy to help,” framing it as a win-win, given how beautifully the American market is growing.” She, however, gave out no source and said, "How do I know? It is up to you to guess." Besides this, she said at the time that Trump wants India to finalise purchases of Spike and Javelin missile platforms. The venture capitalist also urged India to "promise to buy more energy from the US and reduce our dependence on Russian crude".