Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is a venture investor and co-founder of Palantir [S1]. He appears in UAP discussion for two reasons: his own remarks about aliens, which are cast in theological terms, and his proximity to the UAP media world through people who have worked with him. No source reviewed shows him funding a UAP research organisation, program or film.

What he has said

On Joe Rogan Experience #2190 (16 August 2024) Thiel argued that any civilisation with faster-than-light travel would have to be either under total control or perfectly altruistic: "It's not that they might be demons or angels. They must be demons or angels if you have faster than light travel" [S2][S3]. In the same conversation he cited the work of Diana Pasulka and Garry Nolan on recovered craft [S2]. Other lines from that episode circulate as his, such as "it's stuff that we have" and a remark about whistleblowers and "Lucy and the football". The transcript carries no speaker labels, so those attributions are unverified.

His 2024–2026 lectures on the Antichrist and the katechon are about artificial intelligence, climate, nuclear war and a one-world state. Published accounts of them contain no UFO content [S4][S5]. The line that security elites use "aliens as cover for their secret operations" is Ross Douthat's, not Thiel's [S6].

Connections to the UAP world

• Jesse Michels, host of American Alchemy, one of the most-watched UAP interview channels, was an investor at Thiel Capital, Thiel's family office [S7].
• Imitatio, the René Girard foundation Thiel co-founded in 2007, helped fund the Girard documentary made by the director now making the Catholic UAP series Not of This World. No funder of the UAP series itself is named anywhere [S8][S9][S10].
• Thiel and Founders Fund have invested in drone and counter-drone companies (Quantum-Systems, Anduril). Those are unmanned aircraft, not UAP research [S11].
• A claim circulating on YouTube that Thiel wrote to Jeffrey Epstein about UFOs is not borne out: the reported 2015 exchange concerns press coverage [S12].

See the research report.

Sources

[S1] "Peter Thiel" (Wikipedia) / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Career and investments [S2] "#2190 - Peter Thiel, The Joe Rogan Experience — transcript" / https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/the-joe-rogan-experience/2190-peter-thiel / Accessed 2026-09-27 / UFO remarks (unlabelled transcript) [S3] "American Alchemy — The Biblical Truth of UFOs & Angels (ft. Karl Nell & Diana Pasulka)" / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa9Xx5wI8Rw&t=2265s / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Quotes the "demons or angels" line as Thiel's [S4] "Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel's off-the-record lectures on the antichrist" (The Guardian) / https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Lecture content [S5] "The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel's Antichrist Obsession" (WIRED) / https://www.wired.com/story/the-real-stakes-real-story-peter-thiels-antichrist-obsession / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Lecture tour [S6] "Against World Order: Alien Threats and the American Katechon" (illiberalism.org) / https://www.illiberalism.org/against-world-order-alien-threats-and-the-american-katechon / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Douthat's "aliens as cover" line [S7] "Jesse Michels — Joe Rogan Experience podcast notes" / https://podcastnotes.org/joe-rogan-experience/jesse-michels-ufos-ancient-aliens-government-secrets-ai-mars-anomalies-alien-anti-gravity-joe-rogan-experience-2331 / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Thiel Capital [S8] "The Thiel Foundation: Contrarian Philanthropy" (Stanford GSB case study) / https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/case-studies/thiel-foundation-contrarian-philanthropy / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Imitatio co-founded 2007 [S9] "Prof. Sorich's Documentary Spotlights Life and Legacy of Rene Girard" (JPCatholic) / https://jpcatholic.edu/news_press/rene-girard-documentary.php / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Imitatio funding of the Girard film [S10] "Not of This World: Catholic Faith in the Age of Disclosure" (official site) / https://notofthisworld.movie / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Director, participants; no funders listed [S11] "Founders Fund" (Wikipedia) / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Fund / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Anduril investment [S12] "Epstein called Peter Thiel J.D. '92 a 'great friend'" (Stanford Daily) / https://stanforddaily.com/2026/02/05/epstein-peter-thiel-a-great-friend / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Content of the 2015 exchange