Who is Peter Thiel? Billionaire organiser of controversial Wicklow event

James Cox

Controversial billionaire Peter Thiel has been at the cente of Irish headlines recently over a planned event at Powerscourt Estate in Co Wicklow.

So who is Thiel and what is the fuss about?

Who is Peter Thiel?

Thiel was born in Germany but his family moved to the United States when he was an infant.

After graduating from Stanford University, Thiel worked as a clerk, a securities lawyer, a speechwriter, and a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse.

He went on to form Thiel Capital Management in 1996. He first became known as a co-founder of PayPal, and was the company's chief executive when it was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

In 2004, he secured a 10.2 per cent in Facebook for $500,000. In 2005 he launched Founders Fund, a highly successful Silicon Valley  venture capitalist firm.

Palantir Technologies

Palantir Technologies is a highly controversial data analytics and software firm, which Thiel co-founded in 2003. Palantir, named after the seeing stone in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, works with governments and private organisations worldwide.

Thiel is the long-time chairman of Palantir.

It has been criticised for work with military and immigration organisations, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

However, its most controversial contract is with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), where Palantir technology has been used for strikes on Gaza.

Donald Trump

Thiel is a close backer of US president Donald Trump. He served as a Trump delegate in California in 2016, and has donated millions of dollars to Trump's political campaigns.

He has also backed various personal and group campaigns for right-wing causes.

Thiel was also a prominent financial backer of US vice president JD Vance.

Political philosophy

Thiel is a conservative libertarian and technologist known for his scepticism of modern democracy. He believes technological progress is the most important aspect in the progression of civilisation.

He has backed nationalist movements and expressed fears over the 'antichrist', his suspicion that globalism is pushing the world towards a 'one-world state'.

As a gay conservative, Thiel's views have caused ciriticism from LGBTQ+ organisations, over Thiel's backing of right-wing figures who have looked to limit gay and transgender rights.

What is the controversy over Powerscourt?

Thiel is due to front a conference at Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow in August, with talks including 'Navigating WWIII'.

Dialog is an extremely secretive organisation that includes government officials, from the US and other countries, tech giants and right-wing influencers.

Other talks at the event reportedly include Build-a-Cult, Build-a-Party, Money (Does?) Buy Happiness and Bring Back Nuclear.

US outlet Wired has acquired documents belonging to Dialog, including a membership list. The list included Trump administration officials, two US senators, six members of the so-called Paypal Mafia (former founders and early employees who worked at PayPal in the late 1990s and early 2000s), a former Middle East chief of intelligence, a sitting ambassador to the United States, private equity billionaires, television actors and best-selling authors.

Names on the list included Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and an informal White House adviser, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, Texas senator Ted Cruz, and political commentator Ezra Klein.

Actress Sophia Bush, controversial music manager Scooter Braun and YouTube chief executive Neal Mohan were also on the list.

Billionaire members included Reid Hoffman and Elon Musk. 

The list is said to include active members of Dialog, those who have attended the organisation's retreats, and those who plan to attend for the first time at the Powerscourt event in August.

In a statement issued on Friday, Powerscourt Estate said it would cancel the event if it had the power to do so.

“Within the last 36 hours Powerscourt Estate has, through media coverage, become aware of an event scheduled to take place in August on the premises of Powerscourt Hotel and Spa, a long-standing tenant of the estate.

“The estate wish to unreservedly state that if it was within their remit they would cancel the event planned. However, as they have a legally binding lease with MHL Hotels this is not possible.

“Powerscourt Estate are currently taking legal advice as to whether or not they can affect the planned event. No further comment will be made at this time.”

Opposition TDs have said the event should be cancelled, and called on the Government to take action.

Sinn Féin TD John Brady said: "I do not believe this conference should be taking place anywhere in Ireland.

“Peter Thiel is the co-founder of Palantir, a company that has been central to facilitating Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“A UN human rights report stated that Palantir has provided defence infrastructure, military software and its artificial intelligence (AI), which allows automated decision-making.

“They are using AI to automate the slaughter of Palestinians."