Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire who co-founded PayPal and Palantir, is coming to Nashville to deliver a four-part lecture series on the Antichrist starting on Sept. 28 and running through Oct. 19.
Thiel has long been one of the tech industry's most polarizing figures due to his involvement in Palantir, his endorsement of President Donald Trump in 2016 and his contrarian intellectual ideals, including his belief in the Antichrist and the future of the human race.
The billionaire has spoken publicly about his concern that the Antichrist could arise through world leaders, who in turn would use nuclear weapons, AI and climate change to enact Armageddon and collapse civilization.
In 2025, Thiel took the lecture series to San Francisco and, in early
2026, to the Vatican, both of which were off the record. The Nashville series will be the third installment of the series, which has not been heavily reported on due to it being inaccessible to media.
According to the "Nashville Antichrist Lectures" page, the lectures are a "closed-door, off-the-record event" that will "draw from history, literature, art, theology, and politics to explore the biblical Antichrist through Thiel's unique vantage point at the frontier of science and technology."
Who is Peter Thiel?
While Thiel is best known for founding PayPal and Palantir, his presence in tech and politics goes far deeper.
First gaining prominence in the late 1990s as a co-founder of PayPal, Thiel went on to become one of the most successful executives in the tech industry. In 2004, he made a $500,000 investment in Facebook, becoming the company's first outside investor and landing him a board seat.
A year prior, Thiel co-founded Palantir, a company that has come under extensive fire due its role in government agencies and the alleged human rights violations its technology entails.
Outside of tech, Thiel has entrenched himself in conservative politics by backing political figures such as Trump, former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters and Vice President J.D. Vance, who used to work for Thiel at Mithril Capital.
Thiel has also been named in the FBI's files on the deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
What are Peter Thiel's views on the Antichrist?
Drawing on Christian theology and philosopher René Girard, Thiel's version of the Antichrist is a charismatic figure who promises to unite humanity through a centralized government, according to California Catholic Daily.
Thiel, a devout Christian, fears that surrounding war, AI, nuclear weapons and other existential threats could be used to justify the concentration of political power in a single authority., creating conditions for the rise of the Antichrist.
“In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Antichrist would have been a Dr. Strangelove, a scientist who did all this sort of evil, crazy science,” Thiel said in San Francisco in 2025, according to a recording obtained by the Washington Post.
"In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science. It’s someone like Greta [Thunberg] or Eliezer [Yudkowsky.]"
What does Peter Thiel discuss during his Antichrist lectures?
According to the Washington Post's article on Thiel's San Francisco lecture, the billionaire talked about the existential threat of technological regulation, critics of technology and the future of the U.S.
During the recorded lecture, Thiel argued that the Antichrist will not only be someone who promises peace and prosperity, but also someone who criticizes technology and advocates for restrictions.
"Maybe these things are good or bad — stopping them seems far, far worse,” he said, according to the recordings. “If the internet or the AI deranges some people but we have to shut it down altogether, that feels like out of the frying pan into the fire — a cure that’s far worse than the disease.”
In the Q&A portion of the four lectures, Thiel also provided his perspective on whether Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, former President Joe Biden and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could be the Antichrist.
What are the details for Peter Thiel's Nashville Antichrist lectures?
Taking place downtown, Thiel's lecture series is hosted by The Pamphleteer, a Nashville-based news publication describing itself as an alternative to "corporate and progressive" media, and Meriwether Academy, a Nashville-based nonprofit aimed at developing boys’ schools in every state.
The downtown lecture series is hosted by The Pamphleteer, a Nashville-based news publication that describes itself as an alternative to "corporate and progressive" media, and Meriwether Academy, a Nashville-based nonprofit aimed at developing boys' schools in every state.
The event page says that the location of the lectures will be revealed the morning of.
Tickets cost $100 and grant buyers access to all four lectures.
Doors open at 5 p.m. each night with the lecture and Q&A discussion taking place from 6 to 8 pm.
Austin Hornbostel of The Tennessean contributed to this report.
Peter Burditt covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact him at PBurditt@nashvill.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What are Peter Thiel's Antichrist lectures? Third series coming to Nashville
