Two big defense tech players, Palantir and Anduril, are talking to tech companies including SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic, and Scale AI about forming a consortium to bid on Pentagon contracts, according to a report in the Financial Times. The goal, the FT says, is to challenge the dominance of βprimeβ defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, [β¦]
Palantir CEO Alex Karp says Silicon Valley's collaboration with the US government has waned, and that needs to change.
Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
In his new book, Palantir CEO Alex Karp will explore how "Silicon Valley has lost its way."
Big Tech needs to realign with the US government to address pressing issues like AI, he says.
Karp says the progressive left has impeded this work in recent years.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp said Silicon Valley has lost its way under the spell of the progressive left β and has spent its time on inconsequential things like social media instead of collaborating with the US government on game-changing advancements.
It's time for that to change, Karp will argue in his coming book, "The Technological Republic." He sat down in an interview this week to unpack his thoughts on the incoming Trump administration β and what needs to change in Big Tech.
It's become unpopular in some quarters of the tech world for companies to support the US government in recent years, Karp contended. But a shift may be afoot, he said.
"The Valley has realized you just cannot placate the anti-intellectual left" β a trend that's accelerated in the wake of October 7, he said. "They'll destroy your business."
Karp's book will argue that the tech sector must work with the government to address pressing issues β namely, prevailing in the AI arms race.
At the same time, Karp expressed optimism about "the level of talent that is coming in to fix our government," nodding to the incoming Trump administration.
He said American society is at a crisis point, with many feeling certain "instruments of measurement" β schools, borders, and intergovernmental government organizations like the United Nations β "have been corroded." On the other side of the aisle, Karp said, people are "worn out."
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
"My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs," Palantir CEO Alex Karp said.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Palantir CEO Alex Karp joked the software giant was like a "cult" β minus the sex and drugs.
He says Palantirians tend to be "snobby" about their intellect and aren't easily persuaded by orders.
"My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs," Karp says.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp acknowledged that working at the company can feel a bit like a "cult. Employees share a like-minded drive that can occasionally raise eyebrows from those outside, he said.
"It's a rare cult with no sex and very little drugs β and we're not poisoning anyone," he joked during an interview with investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Karp spoke about his coming book, "The Technological Republic."
Cofounder Peter Thiel is an "artist" when it comes to appointing leaders, Karp said, and attracting top engineering talent has always been the company's strong suit.
The founding team started by calling their smartest friends, and the talent pool quickly compounded. Early employees tended to be "very high-mission, very high rigor, very low pay, very high-equity β we lived together," Karp said. "It just was a really cool vibe, and there was nothing like it."
The company was "hated" by the outside venture capital world, Karp said β but it was a welcome dynamic that reminded him of his childhood. Karp's parents were unusual, but it was a happy home. (He's previously described them as hippies who took him to protests.) And if outsiders considered his parents "freaks," Karp said, that just made them "even happier."
Today, Palantirians are "snobby" when it comes to intellect β though not about where they went to school, Karp said. They're also "not convinced by orders." The culture is one of low authority that prizes self-starters.
"My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs," Karp said, adding that lateral hiring can be difficult at the company, where respect is hard-earned.
It's also a relatively small team of 3,600 employees, and Karp doesn't harbor ambitions of massively scaling the head count β thanks in no small part to AI, which has meant "you can power whole industries with 100 people," he said.
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp took the company public in 2020 after launching the data firm in 2003.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Alex Karp pursued a Ph.D. and invested on behalf of wealthy European clients before founding Palantir.
The secretive and controversial big-data company went public in 2020 and recently posted strong quarterly earnings.
Karp is an outspoken CEO who hasn't held back in defending the company against critics.
Alex Karp, longtime CEO of data mining company Palantir, has been taking a victory lap on the heels of the company's latest blowout earnings and rising stock price.
Palantir, which creates software to manage, analyze, and secure data, saw its stock hit an all-time high earlier this month.
Karp, who has been CEO since 2004, is known as an unusual leader, even by Silicon Valley standards. He pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy before joining the startup and sometimes works from a barn.
He and the company have courted controversy over the years, and he's known to be outspoken in defending the company's work with government agencies and the military, saying at a recent talk that he's proud "the death and pain that is brought to our enemies is mostly, not exclusively, brought by Palantir."
Here's how the 57-year-old Karp got his start, took the helm of the secretive startup, and built it into a multi-billion-dollar company.
Alex Karp grew up in Philadelphia.
Karp has described his parents as hippies.
Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
His parents were a pediatrician and an artist who Karp has described as hippies, saying they often took him to labor rights demonstrations and anti-Reagan protests when he was young. A 2018 Wall Street Journal profile called Karp a "self-described socialist."
Karp got his bachelor's degree at Haverford College in Pennsylvania before attending law school at Stanford University.
Karp met Peter Thiel, one of several people with whom he'd later co-found Palantir, at Stanford University, pictured here.
After law school, Karp began working on a Ph.D. in philosophy at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, studying under famed philosopher Jurgen Habermas.
Karp also pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy in Frankfurt, Germany, pictured here.
Pigprox/Shutterstock
Karp is fluent in German and speaks French as well.
Around the same time, an inheritance from his grandfather sparked an interest in investing.
Before heading up Palantir, he got into investing on behalf of wealthy clients.
Stefani Reynolds for AFP via Getty Images
According to Forbes, he quickly became successful at it and created a London-based firm called Caedmon Group, named after his middle name, investing on behalf of high-net-worth clients.
By 2003, Thiel, Karp's law school classmate, had already founded and sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Palantir was founded by several Stanford and PayPal alums.
John Lamparski/Getty Images
He decided to launch Palantir, along with Stanford computer science graduates Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen, plus Nathan Gettings, a PayPal engineer. By 2004, Karp joined as CEO.
Karp is known for being an eccentric leader.
Karp is known for some eccentric behavior.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
He often wears brightly colored athletic wear, keeps Tai Chi swords in his offices, and was known to practice martial arts on his Palantir cofounders in the office hallways.
Karp is a fan of fitness and wellness who practices Qigong meditation and keeps vitamins and extra swim goggles stocked in his office.
He's a fan of Qigong meditation.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/Getty Images
He told Forbes that the only time he isn't thinking about Palantir is "when I'm swimming, practicing Qigong or during sexual activity."
Despite a net worth of around $7.1 billion by Forbes' estimates, Karp doesn't appear to spend lavishly.
Palantir was previously based in Palo Alto, California, but since moved its headquarters to Denver.
Palantir
Karp has been known to sometimes work out of a barn in New Hampshire. He has never been married and told Forbes that the idea of starting a family gives him "hives."
Palantir is also pretty secretive. Because of the company's contracts, many employees have government security clearances and receive five-figure bonuses for choosing to live close to the office, according to the Journal.
Palantir has courted numerous controversies over the years.
Palantir has drawn ire for licensing its tech to law enforcement.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The company has been criticized for licensing its technology to law enforcement, which has used it for practices like predictive policing and tracking cars' routes using just their license plates.
Palantir has also come under fire for its contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Palantir has also faced controversy for its ICE contracts.
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
The company provides software that helps the agency gather, store, and search through data on undocumented immigrants. After employees pressed Karp on ending the company's contracts with ICE, he denied that its technology was being used to separate migrant families.
Karp has responded boastfully to criticism of the company's contracts with the military.
Karp has defended Palantir's use by military and intelligence agencies.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
"The death and pain that is brought to our enemies is mostly, not exclusively, brought by Palantir," he said at a talk in December 2024.
"You may not agree with that and, bless you, don't work here," Karp said in 2023 of tech workers who have qualms about the company's data mining.
The company went public in 2020.
Palantir began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020.
Noam Galai/Getty Images
It went public via a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020 at an estimated $20 billion valuation.
Following Palantir's Q3 2024 earnings report, Karp boasted about the company's performance and defended himself from critics.
Palantir's US revenue increased 44% year-over-year, it said in Q3 2024 earnings.
Bertrand Guay/Getty Images
"This is a US-driven AI revolution that has taken full hold," he said in an earnings release. "The world will be divided between AI haves and have-nots. At Palantir, we plan to power the winners."
During the subsequent earnings call, he said, "Given how strong our results are, I almost feel like we should just go home."
Responding to criticisms of his leadership, he said, "Instead of going into every meeting saying, 'Oh, yes, Palantir is great, but their fearless leader is batshit crazy, and he might go off to his commune in New Hampshire,' whatever thing we're saying, it's now like, yes, the products are best, and we have great products."
Palantir's stock has since hit an all-time high in December.
Now, Karp has a forthcoming book.
Karp's book comes out in February.
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
Slated for release on February 18, 2025, his book "The Technological Republic" argues that Silicon Valley has become complacent and lost its ambition.
He cowrote the book with Nicholas Zamiska, Palantir's head of corporate affairs and legal counsel to the office of the CEO.
Many of PayPal's early employees went on to become major names in tech and the venture capital world, founding, funding, and otherwise developing successful companies. This elite group came to be known as the "PayPal Mafia," a nickname that gained popularity after Fortune used the term in a 2007 piece alongside a photo of some of the members dressed in gangster attire.
Members of the group include Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and over a dozen others. Here's a rundown of the most prominent members of this exclusive group and what they're up to over two decades later.
Peter Thiel: PayPal's founder and the so-called "don" of the PayPal Mafia
Peter Thiel in 1999.
AP
Peter Thiel cofounded the company that would become Paypal β called Confinity β in 1999 alongside Max Levchin and Luke Nosek. Confinity was launched as a developer of security software for hand-held devices like the PalmPilot, but it later pivoted toward digital money transfers.Β
Thiel served as CEO of PayPal until October 2002, when eBay acquired the company for $1.5 billion. Thiel's 3.7% stake was worth a $55 million, according to SEC filings.
Thiel went on to cofound Founders Fund, a venture capital firm that has helped launch companies like SpaceX and Airbnb.
Thiel is now a billionaire.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Thiel, now a billionaire with a net worth of $15.9 billion, according to Bloomberg, cofounded the big data analysis firm Palantir in 2003. He was the first major outside investor in Facebook and contributed early funding to Yelp and LinkedIn, along with a number of other ventures launched by his PayPal peers. Thiel's also a partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital fund based in San Francisco.
Thiel has also drawn criticism in recent years for his support of President Donald Trump and for secretly funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media, which resulted in the company shutting down Gawker and selling the company's assets.
After facilitating talks between Trump and now Sen. JD Vance, Thiel gave a record-breaking $15 million to Vance's campaign, the largest donation ever given to a single senate candidate.Β
Thiel later told The Atlantic he was taking a break from politics. Business Insider later reported that he served as an FBI informant.
After PayPal was bought by eBay, Levchin founded a media-sharing service called Slide that was later bought by Google. He was also an early investor in Yelp β at one point he was the company's largest shareholder β and he served asΒ chairman of Yelp from its founding in 2004 until July 2015.
He founded fintech company Affirm, which allows consumers to finance online purchases at the point of sale and pay for them over time. Affirm went public in 2021, raising $1.2 billion in its IPO. Levchin is also the chairman of Glow, a fertility-tracking app that helps users improve their odds of conceiving.
Ken Howery: PayPal cofounder and CFO from 1998 to 2002.
Howery served as PayPal's CFO.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
After eBay bought PayPal, Howery stayed on as eBay's director of corporate development until 2003. After PayPal's acquisition, he served as cofounder and partner of Founders Fund alongside Peter Thiel.
Howery recently served as US ambassador to Sweden.
Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Ambassador Ken Howery.
Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for the World Childhood Foundation
He was appointed by former President Trump in January 2019 and confirmed in September of that year. He also donated $1 million earlier this year to America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC created by fellow PayPal mafia member Elon Musk.
Howery is active in several nonprofits and serves as a founding advisor to Kiva, an organization that facilitates loans to low-income entrepreneurs. Kiva was founded in part by Premal Shah, PayPal's former product manager.
Elon Musk: founder of (the other) X.com, which merged with Thiel's Confinity to become PayPal
Elon Musk pictured in the early days of PayPal.
AP
In 1999, Elon Musk founded a payments company called X.com, which merged with Thiel's Confinity in 2000. He briefly served as CEO of PayPal before he was ousted by the board in September 2000 and replaced with Thiel. But as the company's largest shareholder, he still walked away from the PayPal sale to eBay with a cool $165 million.
Musk is currently the world's richest person.
Musk now juggles multiple companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and X, formerly Twitter.
Patrick Fallon / Reuters
Perhaps the best-known of all the members of the PayPal mafia now, Musk's estimated net worth is $362 billion.
Musk, who has been a vocal supporter of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and donated more than $200 million to Republican election efforts, will also co-lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump announced after winning the election.
Luke Nosek: PayPal cofounder and vice president of marketing and strategy.
Nosek was also a PayPal cofounder.
Thomson Reuters
Nosek was also reportedly the person who clued in Peter Thiel to cryogenic preservation, which Thiel has since invested in heavily.
Nosek explored angel investing.
Nosek is a SpaceX investor.
David M. Benett/Getty Images for Netflix
In 2005, Nosek joined Thiel and Howery as a partner at Founders Fund. In 2017, Nosek left Founders Fund to launch investment firm Gigafund, which helped raise money for SpaceX.
Nosek was also the first institutional investor in SpaceX and is a board member. He also joined the board of ResearchGate, a platform where scientists and researchers can ask questions, follow topics, and review one another's papers.
Roelof Botha: PayPal's director of corporate development, vice-president of finance, CFO
Botha started at PayPal as director of corporate development.
Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images for TechCrunch/AOL
Botha went to school to be an actuary. He said he never planned to get into tech, but when he saw the opportunity in Silicon Valley, his intuition told him it was where he needed to be.
He started as PayPal's director of corporate development, went on to become vice-president of finance, and later served as CFO.
Botha is now a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital has funded tech giants like Apple, Google, YouTube, and Instagram.Β
Botha as served on the board at more than a dozen companies, including Square, EventBrite, Weebly, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, as well as 23andMe, which he resigned alongside the rest of the board in September over CEO Anne Wojcicki's proposal to take the company private.
Reid Hoffman: board of directors at PayPal, COO
Hoffman started on PayPal's board of directors.
Tony Avelar/AP
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman served on the board of directors when PayPal was founded.
He eventually joined the company full-time as PayPal's COO. In a New York Times interview, Peter Thiel referred to Hoffman as PayPal's "firefighter in chief," noting that there were many fires that needed putting out in the company's early days.
When PayPal was acquired by eBay, Hoffman was the company's executive vice president.
Hoffman cofounded LinkedIn and is one of Silicon Valley's most prolific angel investors.
Hoffman has coauthored several books on startups and professional development. He hosts the "Masters of Scale" podcast, on which he interviews founders about how they launched and scaled their companies, and is a partner at VC firm Greylock Partners. He was an early investor in OpenAI and used to serve on its board, and cofounded Inflection AI.
Hoffman has also recently criticized business leaders, including his fellow PayPal mafia members, for supporting Trump.
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David Sacks: PayPal COO
Sacks served as PayPal's COO.
Owen Thomas, Business Insider
Like Hoffman, Sacks also served as COO at PayPal. Previously a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, David Sacks joined PayPal in 1999.
After PayPal was bought by eBay, Sacks produced and financed the box office hit "Thank You For Smoking," which would go on to be nominated for two Golden Globes. In 2006 he founded Geni.com, an online tool for building family trees.
Β
Sacks founded several companies, became an angel investor, and was named Trump's AI and crypto 'czar'
Sacks is a serial entrepreneur and investor, with angel investments in Airbnb, Postmates, Slack, and many more.Β
He's also a member of Elon Musk's inner circle and, like the Tesla CEO, is an avid Trump supporter, hosting a fundraiser for the president-elect at his home. Sacks reportedly urged Trump personally to choose Vance as his running mate, whom he was introduced to by fellow Paypal mafia member Thiel.
Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen met at PayPal during its early days.
Steven Chen, left, and Chad Hurley.
Noah Berger/AP
Karim and Chen were engineers, while Hurley was a web designer.
In 2005, the trio launched the video-sharing platform YouTube. Karim uploaded the platform's very first video, "Me at the zoo," an 18-second clip of Karim in front of the San Diego Zoo's elephant exhibit. It's been viewed over 292 million times.
Today, Karim, Hurley, and Chen remain active entrepreneurs and investors with a hand in projects from finance to music.
The trio went on to become investors.
David Buchan/Getty Images
Karim launched venture fund YVentures in 2008, through which he invested in Palantir, Reddit, Eventbrite, and Airbnb.
Hurley stepped down as CEO of YouTube in 2010. Since then, he's backed education startup Uptime and invested in several sports teams.
Chen invested in actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt's musical collaboration platform HitRecord, which in February secured $6.4 million in Series A funding.
Andrew McCormack: assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal
In 2003, McCormack started a restaurant group in San Francisco. In 2008, he joined Thiel Capital and worked there for 5 years.
McCormack went on to launch VC firm Valar Ventures
Peter Thiel.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
McCormack partnered up with Thiel again in 2010 to found Valar Ventures, a venture capital fund.
Valar Ventures has invested in technology startups well beyond Silicon Valley, including some in Europe and Canada. In August, Crunchbase reported the firm had closed on a $150 million funding round for a new venture capital fund, Valar Fund V.
McCormack continues to serve as a managing partner of the firm.
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Keith Rabois: PayPal's executive vice president
Rabois served as PayPal's executive vice president.
Fortune Live Media via Flickr
Entrepreneur Keith Rabois served as PayPal's executive vice president from 2000 to 2002.
He would go on to join his PayPal colleague Reid Hoffman at LinkedIn as its vice president for business and corporate development from 2005 to 2007. He was an early investor in startups like Square, where he spent two-and-a-half years as COO.Β
Rabois joined Thiel, Howery, and Nosek as a partner at Founders Fund.
Rabois has invested in a number of major companies.
He was a general partner at Founder's Fund, where he cofounded OpenStore, before returning to Khosla Ventures in early 2024.
Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman: worked on technology at PayPal.
Eric Risberg/AP
Simmons was an engineer and Stoppelman was the vice president of technology after joining PayPal from X.com.
In 2004, the pair came up with the idea for a platform where users could leave recommendations about businesses in their area. They pitched the idea to Levchin, who provided an early investment of $1 million, and Yelp was born.
Simmons left his official role at Yelp in 2010, while Stoppelman continues to serve as Yelp's CEO.
In 2017, Selby was revealed to be the generous tipper behind "Tips for Jesus."
Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Selby later helped manage Thiel Capital, the Thiel's family office, and started his own venture capital fund, AZ-VC, where he serves as managing partner. He still serves as managing director at Thiel Capital.
Starting in 2013, Selby began anonymously leaving tips for unsuspecting waitstaff, ranging into the thousands, and signing them "Tips for Jesus." His identity was confirmed by a New York City bartender who served him prior to receiving a $5,000 tip.
Dave McClure: PayPal's director of marketing
McClure served PayPal's director of marketing.
Edward Wong/South China Morning Post via Getty Images
McClure served PayPal's director of marketing as for four years beginning in 2001.
According to McClure's LinkedIn, he began a program called the PayPal Developer Network, which consisted of about 300,000 developers that were using PayPal.Β
He's since become an investor and owner in a professional sports league for ultimate frisbee and cofounded Practical Venture Capital, according to his LinkedIn.
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Several more former PayPal employees went on to have careers both in and out of tech.
Joe Lonsdale, who got his start as a finance intern at PayPal.
Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Yishan Wong was an engineering manager who later served as CEO of Reddit from 2011 to 2014. He then founded the reforestation company Terraformation in 2020, where he now serves as CEO.
Jason Portnoy worked in finance at PayPal, and went on to work at Clarium Capital and Palantir. He's now a partner at VC firm Oakhouse Partners.Β
Premal Shah was a product manager at PayPal beginning in 2000, then went on to work at technology nonprofit Kiva. He's now president at financial-services startup Branch.Β
David Gausebeck was a technical architect at PayPal. Now, he serves as chief scientist at 3D modeling company Matterport. He cofounded 3D modeling company Matterport, where he now serves as chief scientist.
Joe Lonsdale started his career as a finance intern at PayPal before moving into venture capital β he's worked at VC firms Clarium Capital, Formation 8, and 8VC. Lonsdale also cofounded Palantir, and has reportedly contributed to a Trump PAC.
Eric Jackson was director of marketing at PayPal and went on to write a book about the company called "The PayPal Wars." He's currently the CEO of CapLinked.Β
Peter Thiel's influence in Washington stretches far and wide, from politicians to tech leaders to his own companies' government contracts.
Nordin Catic/Getty Images for The Cambridge Union
Peter Thiel, tech billionaire and conservative kingmaker, has amassed influence all over Washington.
He's close to powerful elected and un-elected political players, like JD Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Palantir, a company Thiel co-founded, counts the US government as its biggest client.
In August 2021, a mystery buyer purchased a 10,000-square-foot home in Washington, DC. They made the $13 million purchase through Salona Village Holdings LLC, shielding their identity.
That mystery buyer was billionaire Peter Thiel, whose sprawling influence in Washington has grown in recent years. Between mentoring Vice President-elect JD Vance since his time at Yale Law School to running companies with millions in government contracts, Thiel has entrenched himself in the DC world in ways both seen and subtle.
Worth $14.8 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the 57-year-old PayPal confounder was one of the first Silicon Valley leaders to espouse conservative views.
Here's a guide to his influence in Washington, which stretches far beyond the walls of his mansion.
A representative for Thiel did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
JD Vance
Thiel has mentored Vance since 2011.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Thiel played a critical role in orchestrating Vance's rise to the top of Republican politics. The two first met in 2011, when Vance attended a talk Thiel gave at Yale Law School. In a magazine article written nearly a decade later, Vance called Thiel "a good friend" and said his speech was "the most significant moment of my time at Yale Law School."
After graduating from Yale, Vance became a principal at Thiel's VC firm, Mithril Capital. Their mentor-mentee relationship only grew stronger, with Thiel eventually investing heavily in Vance's own venture fund, Narya Capital, and writing a blurb for "Hillbilly Elegy." When Vance decided to pursue politics, Thiel remained by his side, pouring at least $15 million into his 2022 Senate campaign, according to OpenSecrets.
In 2021, Thiel introduced Trump and Vance at Mar-a-Lago, and remained invested in their relationship through the 2024 election. With repeated calls to President-Elect Donald Trump and persistent lobbying, Thiel played an important role in getting Vance on the ticket.
Elon Musk
Thiel and Musk merged their companies in 2000.
AP
Musk and Thiel merged their online banking companies in 2000, forming PayPal. Their relationship soured, though, when Thiel ousted Musk as CEO and eventually took over the role. Come 2008, relations had evidently thawed enough for Thiel to make a $20 million investment in SpaceX, one of Musk's companies. The investment was crucial to helping SpaceX recover from a failed rocket launch that same year.
After Trump won the 2024 election, Thiel credited Musk for making other Silicon Valley leaders feel comfortable supporting the president-elect. Musk is one of Trump's top advisors and soon-to-be co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Donald Trump
Thiel didn't donate to Trump in 2020 or 2024.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In 2016, Thiel donated more than $1 million to Trump's presidential campaign. He had a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention and served as a go-between with Silicon Valley. Thiel said he was disappointed by Trump's first term and didn't donate in 2020 or 2024. Still, he predicted that Trump would win this year.
With Vance anointed as MAGA heir apparent, Thiel and Trump have a chance to rekindle their ties.
Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg relied on Thiel during the early days of Facebook.
Chris Unger/Getty Images
Mark Zuckerberg may not be a politician, but his influence in Washington runs deep. Between Facebook's role in free speech culture wars, the Federal Trade Commission's ongoing antitrust case against Meta, and Zuckerberg's rocky relationship with Trump, the tech leader is entrenched in the political conversation.
Thiel has a stake in Zuckerberg's involvement. He counts the Facebook founder among his mentees and was the site's first outside investor. Thiel sat on the board of Facebook and wielded great influence as its longest-serving member, but sparred with some of the company's more liberal employees, per the Washington Post. He ended up stepping down in 2022.
In 2019, Thiel, Zuckerberg, and Trump all had dinner at the White House, illustrating the strengthening ties between the tech world and Washington.
Sam Altman
Thiel was an early investor in OpenAI, Altman's company.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Sam Altman, billionaire co-founder of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is another one of Thiel's mentees. Thiel offered advice and support throughout Altman's early career, eventually becoming an early investor in OpenAI.
Like other prominent tech companies, OpenAI is under federal scrutiny. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating if the company's investors were misguided after board members suddenly ousted Altman as CEO in 2023, the Journal reported.
Beyond the investigation, Altman is becoming more involved in Washington. In the summer of 2023, he began a lobbying campaign in Congress about the future of AI regulation. OpenAI has spent money trying to sway Washington and hired staff with political know-how, per CNBC. As AI policy is poised to become an even bigger political question, Altman's influence β and Thiel's, by proxy β may continue to grow.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Thiel invested in Ramaswamy's "anti-woke" investment fund.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Biotech billionaire and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is set to co-lead DOGE.
Like Vance, Ramaswamy first met Thiel as a student at Yale Law School β he told PBS that it may have been at the very same speech that so impacted the vice president-elect. At the time, Ramaswamy attended an "intimate lunch seminar" Thiel hosted for a small group of students, per the New Yorker.
Eventually, Thiel threw his wealth behind Ramaswamy. In early 2022, Ramaswamy co-founded Strive Asset Management, an "anti-woke" investment fund, and Thiel was an early investor.
David Sacks
David Sacks
Reuters
David Sacks, a former PayPal executive and prominent venture capitalist, will serve as the White House's AI and crypto czar during Trump's second term. Thiel and Sacks met at Stanford, where they co-wrote the controversial book, "The Diversity Myth." Both men have apologized for some of the book's content, which downplayed date rape. Sacks also served as editor-in-chief for the Stanford Review, a libertarian newspaper Thiel founded.
In 1999, Sacks joined Thiel's company Confinity, which later became PayPal. He eventually served as PayPal's chief operating officer and continued working closely with Thiel.
As the AI and crypto czar, Sacks will create the country's legal framework for crypto and head a presidential council of advisors on science and technology. The council will, according to the White House's website, be comprised of industry actors, academics, and people from non-profit organizations. Through Sacks, cryptocurrency supporters will likely have a direct line to Trump, Bloomberg reported.
Jim O'Neill
O'Neill is the former CEO of the Thiel Foundation.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Trump has nominated Jim O'Neill, former CEO of the Thiel Foundation, as the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
A Silicon Valley investor, O'Neill worked at HHS under former President George W. Bush before moving to Thiel's network. During his time as the acting CEO of the Thiel Foundation, O'Neill co-founded the Thiel Fellowship, which gives a $10,000 grant to young people who skip out on or pause college to tackle big projects. In 2012, O'Neill worked with Thiel to launch Mithril Capital Management, the same VC fund where Vance worked. He served as the fund's managing director but left in 2019 β he sued Mithril later that year over claims of unfair business practices and a contract breach.
During Trump's first term, Thiel pushed to have O'Neill fill a prominent health role, per the Post. If confirmed this time around, O'Neill will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump tapped to lead HHS. O'Neill, who has criticized the FDA in the past, would play a big role in HHS' daily operations and policy decisions.
Palantir
The federal government is Palantir's biggest client.
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Thiel's Washington connections extend to his businesses, especially the data mining company Palantir that he co-founded in 2003. Palantir makes software to manage, analyze, and secure data, and its biggest client is the US federal government.
Federal government contracts helped build Palantir, which started out by partnering with defense and intelligence agencies. The company focuses on counterterrorism efforts and immigration enforcement. Some investors anticipate defense and immigration enforcement will see increased spending under a second Trump administration, meaning Palantir may get a boost.
Blake Masters
Blake Masters lost his Senate race, even after getting Thiel's help and Trump's endorsement.
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An ideological ally of Thiel and Vance, Blake Masters lost his bid for a Senate seat in Arizona to Sen. Mark Kelly, but nonetheless benefited from Thiel's money and support. A decade before running for the Senate in 2022, Masters took Thiel's lecture when he was a student at Stanford Law School. Enthralled by Thiel and the course, Masters posted his notes from the influential class on a website.
The two co-authored a book, and Masters served as chief investment officer at Thiel's investment firm and president of the Thiel Foundation. When Masters pivoted to politics, Thiel donated $13.5 million to Masters' 2022 campaign.
Other elected officials
Thiel has donated to other politicians, including a few Democrats.
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Though Thiel's most notable political contributions have gone to Vance, Masters, and Trump, he's donated to an array of other politicians and Republican causes. Among his beneficiaries are Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, according to OpenSecrets. He's also given to the Republican National Committee and other GOP-aligned groups.
Thiel isn't entirely partisan with his contributions, though. In 2014 and 2015, he gave at least $70,000 to Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California. Between 2011 and 2016, he also donated at least $7,800 toΒ Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents parts of Silicon Valley, per OpenSecrets.
