Tag Archives: Peter Thiel

The Atlantic reports: It wasn’t clear at first why Peter Thiel agreed to talk to me. He is, famously, no friend of the media But the impetus for these conversations? He wanted me to publish a promise he was going to make, so that he would not be tempted to go back on his word. And what was that thing …

The Insider reports: Peter Thiel has worn many hats over the years: Silicon Valley founder, Trump megadonor, cryptocurrency booster, democracy skeptic. But there is yet another facet to Thiel, one that has remained secret until now: FBI informant. In the summer of 2021, Insider has learned, Thiel began providing information as a “confidential human source,” or CHS, to Johnathan Buma, …

Bloomberg News reports: Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was formally charged with providing false testimony to a parliamentary committee investigating government corruption. White collar investigators at Austria’s Justice Ministry said Friday that Kurz could face as many as three years in jail if found guilty, according to an emailed statement. Authorities had been probing statements made by Kurz in relation …

The Insider reports: GOP megadonor Peter Thiel thinks Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would “make a terrific president.” “If he’s the Republican nominee, I will strongly support him in 2024,” Thiel told podcast host Bari Weiss in an episode of the “Honestly” podcast on Wednesday. “But I do worry that focusing on the woke issue as ground zero is not quite …

Reuters reports: Tech billionaire and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, an early backer of former President Donald Trump who later broke with him, has told associates he is not planning to donate to any political candidates in 2024, according to two people close to the businessman. Thiel is unhappy with the Republican Party’s focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues, said one …

The Intercept reports: Jeff Thomas, a model and social media influencer who was recently in a long-term relationship with billionaire Peter Thiel, said he spent much of his time with the tech mogul working to persuade him away from his increasingly aggressive pursuit of a culture war — a war that Thomas warned was blowing back on their community. “I …

The Daily Beast reports: Twelve weeks after its rocky launch, conservative dating app The Right Stuff is still failing to seduce large numbers of right-wing users. In October, the Peter Thiel-backed startup managed to generate 40,000 downloads. But between Nov. 1 and Dec. 20, that figure dropped to just 11,000 downloads. The app, cofounded by former Trump administration official John …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Texas startup that sought to build a conservative banking alternative is shutting down. GloriFi has laid off most of its employees and told them that it is closing up shop, according to people familiar with the matter and emails to employees reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.  The company’s fate became clear on Friday, …

The Daily Beast reports: The CEO of an anti-woke banking startup that raised tens of millions in funding and then careened toward bankruptcy has resigned, The Wall Street Journal reported. GloriFi was launched by Toby Neugebauer and Nick Ayers, former chief of staff to Mike Pence, and promoted as an alternative to liberal banks for conservatives. A recent Journal investigation …

The New York Times reports: The British tourist who answered the door of a third-floor apartment had no idea she was staying at the residence of one of the world’s richest men. Peter Thiel, the billionaire and Republican political patron, has declared the two-bedroom apartment that he rents himself as his address while he works toward a goal he has …

The Washington Post reports: Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who pumped $15 million into a super PAC that helped make Blake Masters the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, is planning to spend as much as $5 million more in the race, according to people familiar with the matter. The additional spending would mark a reversal for Thiel, who had …

Axios reports: Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel has told the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund he is willing to make a multimillion-dollar investment in the Arizona race on the condition the super PAC finds matching funds, Axios has learned. With 28 days until the midterms, a late cash injection of this scale could prove decisive in one of 2022’s key Senate …

The Daily Beast reports: The Grand Canyon Times isn’t a traditional newspaper. It’s part of an opaque media organization that recycles right-wing news articles across a network of hyperlocal-sounding news websites, which are padded out with press releases. As the 2022 midterm elections approach, conservative campaigns have tapped the network to send realistic-looking (and unsolicited) newspapers to voters in critical …

The Wall Street Journal reports: An A-list group of financial backers including Ken Griffin and Peter Thiel gave Toby Neugebauer tens of millions of dollars to build a new kind of bank—one aimed at people who see Wall Street as too liberal. The potential customer base was huge, Mr. Neugebauer and his business partner, former Mike Pence chief of staff …

Bloomberg News reports: Palantir Technologies had a secret plan to deepen its relationship with the UK’s National Health Service without public scrutiny. The US data-analytics company aimed to buy up smaller rivals that already had an existing relationship with the NHS, according to emails and strategy documents seen by Bloomberg. This approach would hopefully allow Palantir to avoid further scrutiny …

Vice News reports: On September 1st, Evie Magazine—which strives to be the conservative answer to Cosmo, and which promotes COVID denialism and vaccine misinformation, soft-focus transphobia, and a weird obsession with organ meats—announced a new venture: 28, a “femtech” company offering workouts and nutritional tips based on users’ menstrual cycles, and which requires those users to enter information about the …

The Hill reports: There is a long list of failed or now-defunct dating apps aimed at conservatives that have popped up in recent years, including Righter, Donald Dater, TrumpSingles, Patrio and Conservatives Only. Co-founders John McEntee, who was a personal aide to former President Trump and then director of the White House presidential personnel office, and Daniel Huff, a Trump …

The Daily Beast reports: Republican senatorial candidate Blake Masters enjoys the financial and political support of his longtime friend, mentor, and billionaire business partner Peter Thiel, who is gay. But Masters, who attended Thiel’s wedding, also apparently believes Thiel’s marriage should be illegal. “It’s not just Disney, you know—‘follow your heart,’” Masters said at a campaign event earlier this year. …

Politico Magazine does a deep dive into Blake Masters: Masters’ views, while hard right, are not quite fringe in today’s Republican Party. He’s a harsh critic of Big Tech and says Trump was robbed in 2020. He traffics in the “replacement theory” that Democrats want to change the electorate through a wave of undocumented immigrants. He opposes aid to Ukraine …

The Hill reports: Billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel is donating $3.5 million to a super PAC backing Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance after he won former President Trump’s endorsement last week. Thiel’s donation to Protect Ohio Values, first reported by Politico and confirmed to The Hill by a source familiar with the matter, comes amid a mad dash to …