The Billionaire Behind JD Vance’s Rise and His Controversial Investments in Israel’s Gaza War
Peter Thiel, a PayPal co-founder and Charles Koch’s candidate JD Vance’s biggest backer, has invested in companies directly participating in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This analytics firm plays a crucial role as part of Israel’s assault on Gaza and whose main backer is the billionaire Peter Thiel, Palantir Technologies’ co-founder. Palantir, for instance, in which Thiel owns an 8% stake estimated to be worth $69 billion – has been offering the Israeli regime vital artificial intelligence, military and surveillance technologies.
Recent events proved an increasing tendency for Thiel’s investment decision to be coupled with controversy. On Wednesday, the students from the San Francisco State University protested and rejoiced at the call of their university to divest from Palantir and three other firms whom they said benefited from the Gaza conflict. This decision happened after Palantir put Representative Mike Gallagher, a zag for Israel, at the helm of its defense division, a move widely seen as directing attention to the company’s business with the United States Department of Defense.
This focus grew in July when JD Vance selected Thiel as his running mate, and his many connections with the public were outed. However, Thiel’s connection to Israel and Palantir in the Gaza operation only recently became widely known. An exposure of Thiel’s struggle during a May event with Cambridge University, where his firm had difficulty explaining how it is profiting from AI in Gaza, has also contributed to the criticism.
Critics and protesters have analyzed the conservative liberal aspects of right-wing venture capitalists such as Thiel supporting Christian nationalists while in power under Trump’s presidency. Alaism They claim that such partnerships could increase the encouragement of the war policies on Gaza as they depict the partnership as a negative development for the Middle East.
In response to Vance’s anti-war rhetoric, a representative of the Southern Ohio Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) said that he was a con man who worked for Wall Street and supported the Israeli Defense Forces’ operations against Palestine. The Thiel Foundation has not addressed these issues, and the speaker’s response to comment on them was unavailable.
Palantir Technologies—This company was founded in 2003 and has been involved in U.S. military and intelligence operations, leading to a fair amount of controversy. This Denver-based firm offers data services central to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the recent Gaza war. Palantir co-founder Alex Karp has said that the firm’s technologies are involved in “essential processes” in Israel.
Palantir’s critics, including the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), charge that the firm enjoys the “Gaza genocide,” referring to its contribution through intricate technologies that help it target homes or cars in Gaza. Also, Palantir has been involved in controversies involving its partnership with the U. S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to facilitate detentions, family splitting, and deportations.
For instance, in October 2023, amidst the conflict with Palestine, the company published a full-page advert in the New York Times stating, ‘Palantir stands with Israel,’ and posted similar messages on social media. The company has supported the Israeli defense ministry and signed a formal partnership agreement in January 2024.
Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian American attorney practicing international law, finds Thiel’s action highly immoral. He goes on to say that Thiel’s utilization of AI in the military, especially in contexts such as Gaza, is “anti-moral and anti-ethical. ”
That is, while Gaza’s situation is constantly changing, one of the investigations focuses on relations between Silicon Valley venture capitalists and politicians. The complexity of integrating technology, political science, and international battles is still essential as society observes how these robust networks impact events.
