What Peter Thiel Saw in Jeffrey Epstein
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Economy
/ February 11, 2026
What Peter Thiel Saw in Jeffrey Epstein
In the extensive correspondence between the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and the late pedophile, both men expressed a deep aversion to democracy.
David Futrelle
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Peter Thiel brandishes $100 bills at the Bitcoin 2022 conference.
(Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It’s easy enough to understand the appeal of Jeffrey Epstein to some in the late pedophile’s vast circle of friends and quasi-friends. The scientists whom Epstein collected like so many Beanie Babies were charmed less by his supposedly witty repartee than by his money; some no doubt were also more titillated than horrified by the stories of his private life. Others in his circle, like Donald Trump and Woody Allen, shared his appreciation for women and not-yet women “on the younger side,” as Trump put it in a now-infamous New York magazine profile of his skeevy partying buddy.
But at first glance, it seems harder to explain the five-year friendship of Epstein and tech investor extraordinaire Peter Thiel, which began in 2014, long after Epstein’s pedophilic tendencies were widely known. Still, Thiel is all over the Epstein files; the two exchanged more than 2,000 messages over the years and met on multiple occasions. Epstein would ultimately invest some $40 million in venture capital funds managed by Valar Ventures, a firm cofounded by Thiel.
You might think that Thiel, who fancies himself a sort of philosopher king of the tech set, would find himself irritated by Epstein’s intellectual playacting. Epstein surrounded himself with academics in hopes that some of their intellectual glamor would stick to him. But what really interested him wasn’t ideas; it was sex, and he was known to regularly interrupt the conversations of his pet scientists with the query “What does that got to do with pussy?” (Needless to say, this is not a question Thiel, the first uncloseted gay speaker at a Republican National Convention, spends much time pondering.)
Thiel, whatever his deficiencies as a thinker, at least does the reading. He regularly pauses his ongoing pursuit of money to issue long and earnest disquisitions on the state of the world filled with learned references to dark philosophers like Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt, the infamous Nazi apologist who’s undergoing a troubling revival on the groyper-infested MAGA right.
As their email exchanges make plain, Epstein and Thiel shared many of the same obsessions. Both had a certain disdain for the quotidian responsibilities that come with living in a society, like paying taxes: Epstein offered his clients advice on tax …
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Current Issue
Economy
/ February 11, 2026
What Peter Thiel Saw in Jeffrey Epstein
In the extensive correspondence between the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and the late pedophile, both men expressed a deep aversion to democracy.
David Futrelle
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Peter Thiel brandishes $100 bills at the Bitcoin 2022 conference.
(Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It’s easy enough to understand the appeal of Jeffrey Epstein to some in the late pedophile’s vast circle of friends and quasi-friends. The scientists whom Epstein collected like so many Beanie Babies were charmed less by his supposedly witty repartee than by his money; some no doubt were also more titillated than horrified by the stories of his private life. Others in his circle, like Donald Trump and Woody Allen, shared his appreciation for women and not-yet women “on the younger side,” as Trump put it in a now-infamous New York magazine profile of his skeevy partying buddy.
But at first glance, it seems harder to explain the five-year friendship of Epstein and tech investor extraordinaire Peter Thiel, which began in 2014, long after Epstein’s pedophilic tendencies were widely known. Still, Thiel is all over the Epstein files; the two exchanged more than 2,000 messages over the years and met on multiple occasions. Epstein would ultimately invest some $40 million in venture capital funds managed by Valar Ventures, a firm cofounded by Thiel.
You might think that Thiel, who fancies himself a sort of philosopher king of the tech set, would find himself irritated by Epstein’s intellectual playacting. Epstein surrounded himself with academics in hopes that some of their intellectual glamor would stick to him. But what really interested him wasn’t ideas; it was sex, and he was known to regularly interrupt the conversations of his pet scientists with the query “What does that got to do with pussy?” (Needless to say, this is not a question Thiel, the first uncloseted gay speaker at a Republican National Convention, spends much time pondering.)
Thiel, whatever his deficiencies as a thinker, at least does the reading. He regularly pauses his ongoing pursuit of money to issue long and earnest disquisitions on the state of the world filled with learned references to dark philosophers like Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt, the infamous Nazi apologist who’s undergoing a troubling revival on the groyper-infested MAGA right.
As their email exchanges make plain, Epstein and Thiel shared many of the same obsessions. Both had a certain disdain for the quotidian responsibilities that come with living in a society, like paying taxes: Epstein offered his clients advice on tax …
What Peter Thiel Saw in Jeffrey Epstein
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What Peter Thiel Saw in Jeffrey Epstein
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Current Issue
Economy
/ February 11, 2026
What Peter Thiel Saw in Jeffrey Epstein
In the extensive correspondence between the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and the late pedophile, both men expressed a deep aversion to democracy.
David Futrelle
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Peter Thiel brandishes $100 bills at the Bitcoin 2022 conference.
(Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It’s easy enough to understand the appeal of Jeffrey Epstein to some in the late pedophile’s vast circle of friends and quasi-friends. The scientists whom Epstein collected like so many Beanie Babies were charmed less by his supposedly witty repartee than by his money; some no doubt were also more titillated than horrified by the stories of his private life. Others in his circle, like Donald Trump and Woody Allen, shared his appreciation for women and not-yet women “on the younger side,” as Trump put it in a now-infamous New York magazine profile of his skeevy partying buddy.
But at first glance, it seems harder to explain the five-year friendship of Epstein and tech investor extraordinaire Peter Thiel, which began in 2014, long after Epstein’s pedophilic tendencies were widely known. Still, Thiel is all over the Epstein files; the two exchanged more than 2,000 messages over the years and met on multiple occasions. Epstein would ultimately invest some $40 million in venture capital funds managed by Valar Ventures, a firm cofounded by Thiel.
You might think that Thiel, who fancies himself a sort of philosopher king of the tech set, would find himself irritated by Epstein’s intellectual playacting. Epstein surrounded himself with academics in hopes that some of their intellectual glamor would stick to him. But what really interested him wasn’t ideas; it was sex, and he was known to regularly interrupt the conversations of his pet scientists with the query “What does that got to do with pussy?” (Needless to say, this is not a question Thiel, the first uncloseted gay speaker at a Republican National Convention, spends much time pondering.)
Thiel, whatever his deficiencies as a thinker, at least does the reading. He regularly pauses his ongoing pursuit of money to issue long and earnest disquisitions on the state of the world filled with learned references to dark philosophers like Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt, the infamous Nazi apologist who’s undergoing a troubling revival on the groyper-infested MAGA right.
As their email exchanges make plain, Epstein and Thiel shared many of the same obsessions. Both had a certain disdain for the quotidian responsibilities that come with living in a society, like paying taxes: Epstein offered his clients advice on tax …
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