| Businessweek senior reporter Max Chafkin, who wrote a biography of Peter Thiel, is here today to discuss the latest headlines about the controversial technologist. And speaking of tech, don’t miss Bloomberg’s live coverage of Apple’s iPhone launch this afternoon. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. You may have heard that Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is preparing to deliver a four-part lecture series on the subject of the Antichrist—or the idea of a demonic false messiah who will seek to lead the world astray before the Second Coming. There’s something inherently funny about this—and not only because the PayPal cofounder is promoting himself as a Christian theologian. There’s just something undeniably a bit Antichrist-y about this particular would-be theologian. Thiel is a mercurial tech billionaire, with a side interest in becoming immortal, who has spent decades quietly amassing power in politics. He’s also a sort of tech industry prophet—admired by ambitious engineers and right-leaning media figures for his exceptional foresight and what many see as an intellectual fearlessness. Last year, appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Thiel spent more than three hours weighing in on topics such as the JFK assassination, the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the possible existence of aliens and the differences between humans and chimps, among many, many other subjects.  Thiel. Photographer: Nordin Catic Thiel came up again on Rogan’s podcast this month when a guest, the conservative comedian Tim Dillon, mocked Thiel’s Antichrist lecture series by suggesting it amounted to Thiel’s version If I Did It, O.J. Simpson’s ostensibly fictionalized confession. “He’s trying to prove he’s not the Antichrist,” Dillon said. “That’s probably how the lecture starts. He goes, ‘If I was the Antichrist I obviously wouldn’t be doing this lecture.” Rogan flashed a picture of Thiel and suggested he even looked like the Antichrist. As someone who’s spent years reporting on Thiel (while writing my book, The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and the Rise of the Silicon Valley Oligarchs), I laughed at these jokes. Even so, I feel obliged to say that Rogan, Dillon and others cracking wise on social media have it wrong. Thiel won’t end his promised 8-hour Antichrist extravaganza (16 hours, if you include cocktails, desserts and other time for the Antichrist enthusiasts to mingle) by confessing that he bears the mark of the beast, nor will he profess any other dark allegiances. Although the series itself is off the record, we know this in part because Thiel has talked at length about the subject publicly, most recently in a podcast interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. Ticket buyers may want to skip the rest of this paragraph, but Thiel’s comments about the subject suggest that, in his mind, the Antichrist is less a demonic being and more a way of talking about those on the political left—especially tech skeptics and climate activists, including Greta Thunberg—who he believes are promoting “totalitarian one-world government.” “If Greta gets everyone on the planet to ride a bicycle maybe that’s a way to solve climate change, but it has sort of this quality of going from the frying pan into the fire,” Thiel said on a Hoover Institute podcast last year, conjuring an image straight out of the Book of Revelation: A diminutive Swede leading a two-wheeled cult. A Satanic confession this was not. But Thiel has landed on a way of talking about politics that’s more surprising than the approach of most of his contemporaries, who’ve spent the past six months or so competing to see who can most thoroughly flatter and/or ape President Donald Trump. Among the options: blurt out enormous dollar amounts of planned investments (as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg did last week at a White House dinner), gift him a 24-carat gold paperweight (Apple’s Tim Cook) or even hand over 10% of your company (Intel’s Lip-Bu Tan). In this, the tech executives are following an example that Thiel set nine years ago, when he broke with his peers and backed Trump. At the time, few in Silicon Valley (or in corporate America more broadly) were giving the New York developer and reality-TV star a chance at winning the presidency. Thiel helped Trump build business credibility, and Trump’s victory in turn vaulted Thiel into a new echelon of power, allowing him to influence aspects of White House policy and positioning his companies to profit tremendously (as Palantir’s stock price will attest). Just as important, as I write in a new edition of my book, which comes out in paperback today, Thiel’s support of Trump created a model for Elon Musk to follow in the 2024 campaign. And though Thiel has distanced himself from Trump, he continues to exert influence in Washington by way of a network of protégés and former employees who find themselves in positions of extreme power. This list includes David Sacks, Thiel’s friend and PayPal colleague, who enjoyed a prominent place at last week’s tech dinner and is Trump’s AI and crypto adviser. Jim O’Neill, a longtime aide, is serving as the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, of course, there’s Vice President JD Vance, whose entrance into politics was bankrolled by Thiel. The list goes on. One of the secrets to Thiel’s long-term success has been his willingness to take money off the table after a big win—to sell his most profitable holdings or find other ways to hedge his risky bets. He has a reputation as a buccaneer, but he often chooses opportune times to play it safe. Thiel did this during Trump’s first term, backing away from politics just as the administration was veering into scandal and acrimony, and he seems to be doing it once again. Trump may be Silicon Valley’s favorite alpha dog at the moment, but polling shows the president is unpopular, which could create risks for the tech CEOs who’ve decided to tie their reputations to his. This dynamic has already stung Musk—who alienated huge swaths of his customer base—and it could come for Cook, Zuckerberg and the other Mar-a-Lago regulars. Thiel, meanwhile, will be at a relatively safe remove, using his lecture series to brand himself, once again, as the tech industry’s lone free thinker. During Rogan’s interview with Dillon, both men seemed certain that Thiel had blundered by choosing to promote his Antichrist lectures. “I don’t think he understands the optics,” Rogan said. But Thiel has played the heel successfully throughout his career—branding Palantir, the data mining company, as a potential “Big Brother” and bragging about his destruction of the media company Gawker as “the most philanthropic thing I’ve ever done.” He isn’t the Antichrist, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. Related: Big Tech Looks to Strengthen Frayed Relationship With Democrats Ahead of Midterms More from Max Chafkin: Subscribe to the Everybody’s Business podcast, where he and co-host Stacey Vanek Smith discuss the week’s business news and break down what you need to know, with the help of Businessweek journalists, experts, and the people and businesses trying to navigate the economy every day. Sign up here for new episodes, available Fridays. |
