It was PayPal cofounder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel who introduced his mentee, JD Vance, to President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2021. Three years later—with Trump and Vance just weeks from the White House—it’s Thiel who is sitting pretty as many people within his network head for official or advisory positions in the next administration.
David Sacks—who worked with Thiel at PayPal and wrote for the Stanford Review, the student newspaper Thiel founded as an undergraduate at Stanford University in 1987—was named as the White House’s incoming “AI and crypto czar” on Wednesday. Jim O’Neill, former CEO of Thiel’s personal foundation, has been picked as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Elon Musk, whose financial and vocal support helped elect Trump, will be running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Musk had worked closely with Thiel at PayPal; and Thiel’s venture fund, Founders Fund, was an early investor in several of Musk’s companies, including space cargo business SpaceX, tunneling firm the Boring Company, and brain-chip startup Neuralink.
