A Silicon Valley nonprofit revoked ticket privileges for an attendee at an exclusive event with tech billionaire Peter Thiel after the person revealed details about Thiel's lecture on the Antichrist.

In September, the San Francisco-based ACTS 17 Collective — a nonprofit led by Michelle Stephens, whose husband, Trae Stephens, is an investor at Thiel's Founders Fund — launched a four-part series with Thiel at the Commonwealth Club on the Embarcadero, where the co-founder of Palantir Technologies reportedly discussed theology, technology, and apocalyptic prophecy.

While the event was highly publicized, an invite for "The Antichrist: A Four-Part Lecture Series" warned that Thiel's comments were "off the record." Tickets for the event sold out quickly before its initial session on Sept. 15. The series' final session is scheduled for Oct. 6.

According to now-deleted notes transcribed and published by attendee Kiran Kulkarni, a Silicon Valley researcher and developer, Thiel allegedly warned that modernity has long pushed aside talk about the Antichrist. The figure is described in Evangelical End-Times teachings as the tyrannical adversary of Christians who appears before the end of the age.

According to Kulkarni, Thiel cited "existential risks from AI, bioweapons, and nuclear war" as catalysts for this authoritarian regime.

He referenced several passages from both the Old and New Testaments, including 1 Thessalonians 5:3. In past comments, Thiel has argued that "The slogan of the Antichrist is 'peace and safety.'"

Noting a list of "secular apocalyptic fears," Kulkarni's notes from Thiel's Sept. 15 off-the-record session add, "If we are to make this list complete, however, we should add the risk of the Biblical Antichrist, manifesting as a one world government. Here the secular maps neatly onto the theological: the 'one world state' of the Antichrist on the one hand, and the 'no world' of Armageddon."

Drawing on sources ranging from Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli to pre-Enlightenment figures Adam Smith and Francis Bacon, Thiel described the Antichrist as a charismatic figure or entity that exploits fears of technological catastrophe to gain power. In a previous interview with Peter Robinson of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Thiel stated: "The Antichrist probably presents as a great humanitarian, it's redistributive, it's an extremely great philanthropist as an effective altruist," he was quoted as saying.

The lecture notes conclude with a December 2024 Q&A between Thiel and Robinson on the "Uncommon Knowledge" podcast, where Thiel outlined his "speculative thesis," suggesting that modern technologies, including AI, have reached a destructive potential that could precipitate apocalyptic scenarios. 

When asked during the off-the-record event whether the Antichrist figure is a person or an institution, Thiel is reported to have responded, "Early Christians thought it was Nero. Lutherans and Anglicans pointed to the Pope. But until the modern age, humanity lacked the power to destroy itself. That has changed. Because our era uniquely possesses this destructive capacity, the Antichrist today can only be understood as an individual, not merely an institution."

He added that while churches largely abandoned speculating on the identity of the Antichrist in the post-Enlightenment period, such a figure is likely to rise "through the crises of modernity, leveraging the fear of technology and the constant talk of apocalypse."

While Kulkarni's notes did not indicate Thiel gave any hint of the Antichrist's identity, Thiel suggested in a June interview with the New York Times that environmental activist Greta Thunberg could be a type of the Antichrist. 

After Kulkarni published the blog post on Sept. 18, Stephens replied to an X post from Kulkarni advising him that he had violated ACTS 17 Collective's policy, writing, "You are in violation of the clear off the record policy we implemented and reiterated many times. Your ticket is revoked without refund."

It's not clear whether Kuklarni's notes accurately represented Thiel's presentation. CP reached out to Stephens and ACTS 17 Collective for comment on Wednesday.

While Thiel has made headlines for his fascination with the biblical Antichrist, he has also drawn scrutiny for his business interests. 

Palantir, which Thiel co-founded, has faced criticism for its role in controversial government contracts, including providing software to the Israel Defense Forces and to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for tracking illegal immigration, according to reports.