You didn't vote for them, yet they dictate your daily life: some of the richest entrepreneurs in the world use their money, their companies, and their reach to influence politics. Elon Musk spent at least 288 million dollars to bring Donald Trump and the Republicans into office. Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, funded the career of J. D. Vance, now the US Vice President, for years. Sebastian Kurz is now also part of the tech giants and is increasingly sounding like his business partners. The common denominator of this network: undemocratic political influence that is difficult to control. Politicians can be voted out of office, but the owners of major platforms and data corporations cannot.
Power without democratic control
This reveals a pattern: billionaires support politicians whose goals align with their own ideas and business interests. They help with money, contacts, and media reach. In return, politicians open up markets, relax regulations, or award contracts to private companies.
Former heads of government like Kurz later turn their political contacts into business. This involves political power that is difficult to control. Politicians can be voted out of office. The owners of large platforms, data corporations, and private security firms cannot.
Elon Musk: With Money and X to Power
The example of Elon Musk shows how economic power becomes political influence. This became especially clear during the 2024 US election. According to an analysis of campaign finance reports, he at least 288 million dollars for Trump and other Republicans.
Musk did not just provide money, however. He founded his own election campaign organization. Furthermore, he used X, formerly Twitter, for political messages. Because he owns the platform, he also determines its rules and helps decide which posts receive particular visibility.
Following Trump's election victory, Musk gained direct access to the government. As a Special Government Employee, meaning a temporary government worker, he worked for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The initiative, established by the Trump administration, was intended to downsize agencies and cut government spending. In May 2025, Musk left the government again.
The process shows the basic pattern of this network: A billionaire supports a candidate with money and reach. After the election, he can help shape the policies that also affect his companies.
Musk supports AfD and Milei
Musk also used his reach politically outside of the USA. Ahead of the 2025 German federal election, he called for voting for the AfD. He held a long conversation on X with party leader Alice Weidel and spoke via video at an AfD campaign event. Reuters reported on concerns about interference in the German election campaign.
There is no publicly known evidence of a party donation by Musk to the AfD. His support was valuable nonetheless. He provided the party with access to an international audience of millions – on his own platform.
Musk also publicly supports Argentine President Javier Milei. Milei wants to downsize the state, cut spending, and reduce regulations for businesses. Musk praised this course of action and stated that his companies would Explore investments in Argentina.
This also has an economic side. Argentina possesses large lithium deposits. The metal is needed for electric car batteries. Milei's government also authorized Musk's satellite internet service Starlink in the country.
There is also no public evidence of direct financing of Milei by Musk. However, shared political goals and matching business interests are clearly visible.
Peter Thiel has been grooming politicians for years
Peter Thiel pursues a longer-term strategy. The US investor does not just donate to individual election campaigns. He supports politicians at the very beginning of their careers.
This illustrates the career path of J. D. Vance. The current US Vice President initially worked at Thiel's investment firm, Mithril Capital. Vance later founded the fund Narya Capital. Thiel also invested there. Thiel spent around 15 million dollars on Vance's successful campaign for a seat in the US Senate. Reuters describes how closely Vance's professional and political rise was linked to Thiel's patronage.
Vance is therefore not Thiel's errand boy. He holds his own positions and disagrees with big tech companies on certain issues. However, Thiel's help gave him money, contacts, and a firm place in the world of wealthy investors.
This creates a lasting connection. The funded politician knows the interests of the tech industry. The investor has a political ally with access to the government.
Peter Thiel wants less democracy and more freedom for the rich
Thiel's political goals have long been known. In a Essay from 2009 he wrote that he no longer considered freedom and democracy to be compatible.
He supports projects that seek to evade government regulations and decisions by democratic majorities. These include private cities with their own rules and largely autonomous settlements on the ocean.
Behind these ideas lies a simple principle: unelected parliaments should not set the rules, but rather private owners. Anyone with enough money can choose the place and its rules.
At the same time, Thiel profits from government contracts. His data company, Palantir, works for the military, intelligence agencies, police, and immigration authorities. Thus, the state is supposed to withdraw from the economy, but remains important as a paying customer and powerful security apparatus.
Palantir makes government surveillance easier
Palantir merges information from various databases. This allows authorities to search through large amounts of data and identify connections between people.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also uses the software. ICE is responsible for arresting and deporting people without a valid right of residence. Palantir's systems help locate whereabouts and personal contacts.
The US civil rights organization ACLU has examined the programs and data sources. For example, places of residence, workplaces, family relationships, telephone contacts, fingerprints, and facial images can be processed.
Palantir rejects the label of surveillance company. The company states that its customers are only allowed to use lawfully collected data. The software also includes features to protect civil rights.
The democratic problem remains: A private corporation develops the technology with which governments link a vast amount of personal data. The public can hardly verify how these systems are used.
Sebastian Kurz is becoming part of the business
Here the connection leads to Austria. At the end of 2021, Sebastian Kurz withdrew Back from politics. Shortly thereafter, the former ÖVP leader announced he would be working for Peter Thiel's investment firm. ORF reported on his new role as „Global Strategist“.
Later, Kurz explained that he had not been employed by Thiel Capital. Instead, his own company, SK Management, had advised Peter Thiel. In early 2025, Kurz said in an ORF interview that he was no longer working for Thiel. Exactly when the collaboration ended is not publicly known.
In any case, Thiel was one of Kurz's first well-known clients following his withdrawal from politics. The former Federal Chancellor brought something that is particularly valuable for international companies: personal contacts with governments, investors, and other decision-makers.
Kurz did not just become a consultant, however. He became an entrepreneur and shareholder himself.
Dream turns Kurz into a tech entrepreneur
Together with the Israeli entrepreneurs Shalev Hulio and Gil Dolev, Kurz founded the company Dream. It develops artificial intelligence systems designed to protect governments and critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. This includes entities such as government agencies and energy suppliers.
In June 2026, Dream received 260 million dollars from investors. The company was valued at three billion dollars in the process. According to its own statements, it employed around 350 people in Vienna, Tel Aviv, and Abu Dhabi. ORF reported on the financing and the company's statements.
According to ORF, Kurz still holds 15 percent of Dream. On paper, this stake is worth several hundred million dollars. However, how much Kurz would actually receive will only become apparent in the event of a sale.
Dream co-founder Shalev Hulio was previously the head of the Israeli NSO Group. It developed the Pegasus spyware. According to international investigations, government clients also used Pegasus against journalists, human rights activists, and politicians. Amnesty International published the results of the Pegasus Project.
NSO denied central allegations. The company stated that Pegasus may only be used against serious crime and terrorism.
Hulio's past activities do not imply any misconduct by Dream or Kurz. However, the background shows the area from which the experience and contacts for the new company come. Who hires Dream is largely not publicly known.
Political contacts become a business model
Dream is not the only connection. Kurz also worked for Masdar, a state-controlled energy company from Abu Dhabi. Already as Federal Chancellor, he had cultivated close contacts in the United Arab Emirates. According to an investigation by Follow the Money and the Standard, he became a director of a Dutch Masdar subsidiary in April 2022. His duties and his pay remained unknown.
Kurz also sits on the voluntary advisory board of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute. The organization promotes the agreements between Israel and several Arab states. It was founded by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former White House adviser.
There are also contacts with the Hungarian Mathias Corvinus Collegium, MCC for short. The educational institution has been strongly supported by the government of right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Since 2023, an investment company controlled by MCC has held a 90 percent stake in Modul University Vienna. Kurz and his former chief of staff Bernhard Bonelli participated in MCC events. At one of them, Kurz introduced Peter Thiel.
No permanent cooperation between the MCC and Kurz has been documented. His associates explicitly ruled out any cooperation with Kurz's new institute when speaking to the newspaper "Der Standard". However, joint appearances and personal contacts are documented.
The Global Shift Institute brings politics and money together
In December 2025, Kurz and Bonelli founded GSI GmbH from an existing company. Behind it is the planned Global Shift Institute.
It is supposed to publish texts, organize events, and offer paid memberships. This makes it similar to a think tank. That is what an organization is called that develops political ideas and disseminates them with experts, funders, and decision-makers.
According to sources from Kurz's inner circle, the institute is primarily intended to organize his lectures, guest articles, and events. A political project or a comeback is not planned. Der Standard reported on the company, its owners, and the plans.
What this model can look like was demonstrated by the „Moving Mountains“ summit in October 2025 in Seefeld. Kurz organized the four-day meeting together with the former German minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
Invited were active politicians, former Kurz staff members, investors, company bosses, and media people. The published list included, among others, Kurz’s business partner Alexander Schütz, former OMV CEO Rainer Seele, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Bitpanda founder Eric Demuth.
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche was also announced with her government title. Nevertheless, several participants described the meeting as private.
Such meetings are not automatically unlawful. However, they create direct access between politics, business, and the media. It is barely visible to the public what is discussed there and what deals arise from it.
Right-wing media increase the reach
Besides money and contacts, the network also needs publicity. With X, Musk himself owns one of the most important platforms. In Kurz's circle, the connections to the media are less direct, but clearly visible.
Under Sebastian Kurz, Vera Regensburger was head of policy and strategy at the ÖVP headquarters. Later, until April 2022, she was deputy head of cabinet in the Federal Chancellery under Karl Nehammer. Today, she manages the investment firm AS²K, owned by Kurz and the investor Alexander Schütz.
In October 2024, she additionally took over the management of Web eXXpress Medien Holding. It includes the right-wing Austrian portal Exxpress. At the same time, the German company Vius SE acquired a stake in Exxpress. Vius operates the right-wing German portal Nius. Der Standard documented these functions and company connections using the commercial register.
Laura Sachslehner, a former general secretary of the ÖVP, also works for Exxpress and Nius. Kurz gave interviews to both outlets.
That does not prove that Kurz owns the media or dictates their reports. However, it shows how former political staff, investment firms, and right-wing media are connected through personnel.
The common pattern: Power without choice
Musk, Thiel, Trump, Vance, Milei, Orbán, and Kurz do not pursue the exact same goals everywhere. There is also no proof of a central authority controlling all the participants.
The common thread lies in the way power is built:
- Billionaires fund politicians whose views align with their interests.
- Their own platforms and connected media give them reach.
- Governments are dismantling regulations, opening markets, and awarding contracts.
- Private companies are taking on important tasks in data, security, and infrastructure.
- Former politicians later use their contacts as consultants, intermediaries, and entrepreneurs.
None of these connections require a secret treaty. It is enough if politics and business work in the same direction.
This directly affects the public. It is about who determines political debates, who gets access to personal data, and who profits from government contracts. Elected politicians must face elections and parliaments. Private networkers, platform owners, and multi-billion-dollar security firms do not have to do that.
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