Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of software company Palantir and a successful venture capital investor, fueled a debate on Twitter about men's parental leave.
Any prominent man who takes six months' vacation with his newborn baby is "a loser," Lonsdale wrote.
He was responding to the break from US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who is looking after his child, as well as criticism from a podcast host known in the United States.
Numerous prominent entrepreneurs expressed their solidarity with Buttigieg and condemned the Londsdale testimony.
For example, Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan, founders of the Reddit website, defend their company's parental leave policy.
They grant their employees four months' leave after the birth of their child.
The news agency Bloomberg Tan quotes that he has taken the vacation and hopes that his employees will follow suit.
Ohanian, who is married to tennis player Serena Williams, is also an ardent advocate of shared responsibility for young parents.
Law does not come about
Politically, however, there is no sign of any change.
As Bloomberg reported earlier this week, the Democrats are likely to abandon their paid parental leave plan after heavy opposition from Republicans in Congress.
The United States continues to be one of the few leading industrial nations that does not have paid parental leave after giving birth.
Lonsdale, who sparked the debate, has three children himself.
He is one of the closest employees of Peter Thiel, the conservative billionaire with German roots.
One of his well-known venture investments is Oculus.
The California-based VR glasses maker was bought by Facebook for more than $ 2.3 billion in 2014.