PayPal and Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel is embarking on an unusual intellectual journey this fall—delivering a sold-out four-part lecture series on the biblical figure of the Antichrist. The private lectures, which will be held at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, represent the latest evolution in Thiel’s increasingly public theological interests that intertwine his Christian faith with his concerns about technology’s potential to enable authoritarian control.

The series, organized by the nonprofit Acts 17 Collective, will explore “the theological and technological dimensions of the Antichrist” in four sessions across September and October. The lectures remain off-the-record, with no transcripts or recordings made public, but they draw upon the work of René Girard, the French philosopher who profoundly influenced Thiel during his Stanford undergraduate years, along with thinkers like Francis Bacon and Carl Schmitt.

Thiel’s theological preoccupations might seem incongruous with his business empire, but they reflect a consistent worldview shaped by Girard’s “mimetic theory”—the idea that human desires are learned through imitation, often leading to conflict and violence. This philosophical framework reportedly influenced Thiel’s $500,000 angel investment in Facebook in 2004, which he credits to recognizing the mimetic nature of social media.

The 57-year-old billionaire, worth an estimated $20.8 billion according to Forbes, built his fortune through a series of contrarian investments that challenged conventional Silicon Valley wisdom. His investment philosophy centers on identifying monopoly-like businesses and backing transformative technologies before they gain mainstream recognition. This approach led to early successes with PayPal, which sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, and later investments in companies like Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm he cofounded in 2003.

Palantir has emerged as perhaps Thiel’s most controversial venture, providing surveillance and data analysis tools to government agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Defense, and intelligence services. The company’s “Gotham” platform enables law enforcement to connect vast datasets, creating detailed profiles of individuals by combining everything from DMV records to social media activity. Recent Trump administration contracts have expanded Palantir’s reach across federal agencies, raising concerns about potential misuse for political targeting.

Read More Here