Alex Karp & Peter Thiel Got Invited To A Secret Intellectual Conference

Look, if you are one of the cool kids, you get to do some cool stuff.

Palantir co-founders Alex Karp and Peter Thiel recently were invited and attended the Bilderberg Meetings in Washington D.C from June 2nd - June 5th.

From their website, they describe themselves as:

Since its inaugural Meeting in 1954, the annual Bilderberg Meeting has been a forum for informal discussions to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. Every year, approx. 130 political leaders and experts from industry, finance, labour, academia and the media are invited to take part in the Meeting. About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America; one third from politics and government and the rest from other fields. The Meeting is a forum for informal discussions about major issues. The Meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which states that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor of any other participant may be revealed. Thanks to the private nature of the Meeting, the participants take part as individuals rather than in any official capacity, and hence are not bound by the conventions of their office or by pre-agreed positions. As such, they can take time to listen, reflect and gather insights. There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.

It's basically a place for rich people to do a collective podcast

Whenever I come across certain events or conferences that are shielded from the public, I don't have some huge sense of envy or jealousy for the people that got invited to go there.

Neither do I have some large conspiratorial theory about why those events even exist in the first place.

Rather, my take is that when you become very powerful, you end up getting invited to go speak and have conversations with other people who are very powerful. It's just the way of life - when you reach a certain level, doors open that would not have opened before.

Hopefully those doors open based on your own hard work and merit, but we know many times they open because of family and political connections. Regardless, the doors open for some people.

I don't think all 130 invitees are plotting some new world order or path to create a new world, I just think they are having some informal discussions that allow them to be more genuine then they would be if the cameras were recording and if it was a traditional keynote-style conference.

I'm more concerned with who gets invited to these parties. Because, at the end of the day, that's what ultimately dictates the nature of the event itself. Which business leaders, which political leaders, which influential figures in media get access to these exclusive hangouts?

Ultimately, I would characterize this conference as an intellectual Met Gala. Instead of everyone dressing up and taking photos, they are having discussions around the geopolitical and economic structure of our current world.

From their website,

The annual Bilderberg Meeting is a three-day forum for informal discussions, designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The pioneering Meeting grew out of the concern, expressed by leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic, that Western Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on issues of common interest.

The first Meeting took place in Hotel De Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands, from 29 to 31 May 1954. Representatives from economic, social, political and cultural fields were invited to informal discussions to help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations in the difficult post-war period.

Throughout the years the annual Meetings have become a forum for discussion on a wide range of topics - from trade to jobs to technology, from monetary policy to investment and from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. In the context of a globalised world, it is hard to think of any issue in either Europe or North America that could be tackled unilaterally.

I'm Happy Karp and Thiel Are Going

Not every business leader was invited to this conference. Whatever committee makes the decision on who to invite must've felt the role Karp and Thiel are playing are important enough to warrant them an invitation.

To me, in the most naïve sense, that singles Palantir is obviously an important company doing important things in the world. We know they are working with Ukraine in the war. Ukraine is a topic of discussion at this meeting, so it only makes sense to invite the cofounders of a technology company that may be playing the most crucial role in mitigating this crisis.

Hopefully they can secure some deals while they are intellectually mingling during their cocktails. Always be closing, right?

You can see a video of me speaking about this here.

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