Peter Thiel Embodies Silicon Valley’s Conservative Past and Dystopian Future
Peter Thiel’s right-wing provocations lead many to conclude that he’s an outlier in supposedly liberal Silicon Valley. In fact, as an open advocate for a world where technology supplants democracy, he’s the industry’s fullest embodiment.
Peter Thiel, cofounder of Paypal and Palantir. (Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
On December 14, 2016, the executives of the largest tech companies in the United States were seated around a conference table on the twenty-fifth floor of Trump Tower. After opposing Donald Trump during the election, they’d assembled to kiss the ring and find a path forward that would serve their mutual interests.
While it was generally framed as an uncomfortable meeting of political rivals, there was one executive in the room who did not have that rivalry projected onto him. Seated beside Trump was Peter Thiel, the PayPal and Palantir Technologies cofounder who broke from his peers to endorse Trump at the Republican National Convention. During the meeting, Trump grasped Thiel’s hand and praised him as “a really special guy” who saw “something very early — maybe even before we saw it.”
Given that Silicon Valley is often portrayed as a liberal mecca, it seemed like Thiel was bucking the trend by aligning with Trump. But a new biography of the billionaire venture capitalist, Max Chafkin’s The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power, suggests that Thiel actually represents the spirit of Silicon Valley far more faithfully than many of his peers.
Sorry, but this article is available to active subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.