Welcome to a special Friday edition of The Stratosphere.

Today, a small scoop from the world of Silicon Valley politics before the weekend. As always, my inbox remains open for your thoughts and tips.

Two weeks later, however, Altman’s life blew up. He was fired from OpenAI, inspired a staff revolt, and was almost immediately rehired in a whiplash corporate saga for the ages. Any extracurricular plans he might have had to insinuate himself into presidential politics would, I presume, have had to take a backseat to the more urgent work of getting his company back under control.

Luckily for Altman, it appears that his friends in Silicon Valley are about to pick up the slack. Last week, some allies of the OpenAI founder quietly launched a new super PAC to boost Phillips, I’m told by three sources. Altman himself is not currently expected to spend his own money to support the group—and to be clear, this is not some Altman front group. The group, called We Deserve Better, Inc., has plans to raise and spend major money from “lots of tech friends.”

The group is being run by brothers Matt and Scott Krisiloff, both tech industry insiders who are close friends with Altman and have advised him on his previous political pursuits, including the California gubernatorial bid he floated in 2017. Matt, who once dated Altman, was an early employee at OpenAI and now runs a startup that turns stem cells into human ova. His brother Scott is a top executive at Helion, the buzzy nuclear fusion startup that Altman has backed with hundreds of millions of dollars. Both of them are excited Phillips supporters who have thought deeply about ways to use artificial intelligence in presidential politics. They are also armed with private research on the Democratic electorate that Altman helped conduct over the last few years, as I also reported last month.

Since that meeting, of course, Altman’s life has only gotten much, much more complicated: Altman is currently trying to forge ahead with his company under a newly reconstituted board while maneuvering an independent investigation into the still-mysterious events that surrounded his firing. The Krisiloffs were originally hopeful that he’d back them. Now, I’m told, Altman isn’t expected to have any formal involvement with the super PAC.

But Altman’s friends may still offer their support, especially if Altman gives the signal to his network behind the scenes. I haven’t yet been able to get a read on how much money Silicon Valley plans to spend on the effort, but any come-from-behind national campaign will require significant resources to have any kind of shot. Early polling suggests that swing voters have basically no idea who the Minnesota congressman is.

And there is plenty of antipathy toward Biden among Silicon Valley executives and investors, some of whom attended a poker game with Phillips last week. Could the Krisiloffs ferret a check from Chamath Palihapitiya or David Sacks, who recently hosted Phillips on their All-In podcast? Phillips’ appearance on the popular pod may have had an effect: I’m told the new PAC has raised a half-million dollars since its inception, almost all from people in tech. Others are being pitched directly on the group’s plans to “pull in Silicon Valley digital and data targeting practices,” according to a source, to boost Phillips’ name ID in New Hampshire, where the group thinks it could just maybe deliver a narrative-changing result.

The previously existing super PAC behind Phillips, called Pass the Torch, was set up by Steve Schmidt, the Never Trump strategist who led John McCain’s 2008 campaign. But while Schmidt helped launch Phillips’ bid, he didn’t plan to stick around to run day-to-day operations. His group is expected to stay active—it’s currently airing television ads that end tomorrow—but probably reposition its role in the 2024 cycle, and perhaps look down ballot.