Peter Thiel

THE BILLIONAIRE PREACHING THE APOCALYPSE OF AI SAFETY

Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal, launched Palantir, was Facebook's first outside investor, and built Founders Fund into a Silicon Valley power base. In 2025-26 he turned public theologian: leaked lectures from San Francisco and Rome frame AI safety advocates as 'legionnaires of the Antichrist.'

1. 1998

   HE CO-FOUNDED PAYPAL IN 1998

   Thiel co-founded Confinity with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek, which became PayPal. He served as CEO until eBay bought the company for $1.5 billion in October 2002; his 3.7% stake was worth $55 million at the sale.

   SOURCES: Wikipediareported

2. 2003

   HE LAUNCHED PALANTIR IN 2003

   Thiel incorporated Palantir in May 2003, a big-data analysis company named after Tolkien's seeing-stones, built on PayPal's anti-fraud technology. He has been its chairman since, largely bankrolling the initial $30 million cost alongside Alex Karp.

   SOURCES: Wikipediareported

3. 2004

   FIRST OUTSIDE MONEY INTO FACEBOOK: $500K

   In August 2004 Thiel became Facebook's first outside investor, buying a 10.2% stake for $500,000 in a company then valued at $4.9 million. He sold most of his position around the 2012 IPO for roughly $1 billion total.

   SOURCES: Wikipediareported

4. 2005

   FOUNDERS FUND, 2005

   Thiel launched Founders Fund with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek in 2005, turning the PayPal Mafia's winnings into one of Silicon Valley's most contrarian venture franchises.

   SOURCES: Wikipediareported

5. Oct 2025

   THE ANTICHRIST LECTURES LEAK, OCTOBER 2025

   Thiel delivered four off-the-record 'Antichrist' lectures at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club in autumn 2025; seven hours of leaked audio were published by the Washington Post. In them he framed AI safety advocacy as a movement to halt progress under the banner of manufactured existential fear.

   SOURCES: Arktos Journalreported

6. Oct 2026

   ROME SLIDES: SAFETYISTS ARE 'LEGIONNAIRES OF THE ANTICHRIST'

   Thiel repeated the lecture series in Rome in mid-March 2026, invitation-only. In October 2026 the Verge's David Gibson reported the leaked slides: Thiel calls the effective-altruism movement and AI 'safetyism' 'legionnaires of the Antichrist,' brands Bill Gates a 'Mr. Hyde,' rates Eliezer Yudkowsky 'more Luddite than Greta,' says he is 'embarrassed' by his past funding of Yudkowsky, and calls today's AI-safety advocates 'deranged.'

   SOURCES: AI Weekly (The Verge)reported