Some may have heard of the tech geniuses who compose “The PayPal Mafia.” The mainstream media glamorizes them as “tech visionaries,” a band of rebellious geniuses who disrupted finance and went on to build empires. Yet, beneath the surface of the so-called PayPal Mafia is not innovation for the public good, but the construction of a new form of oligarchy—one more dangerous than the robber barons of the 19th century. Why? Because this new class of elites doesn’t merely build companies. These men influence monetary systems, shape global narratives, and fund policy engineering through unelected channels.
PayPal emerged in the late 1990s during the dot-com bubble, which I had warned would crash by 2000. PayPal became a clever workaround to bypass the traditional banking system, cloaked under the premise of convenience. This so-called “mafia” includes Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, David Sacks, Scott Banister, Roelof Botha, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, Premal Shah, Yu Pan, and Yishan Wong, among others who had roots in PayPal. Each went on to build their own tech empire spanning across biotech, social media, space, venture capitalism, and surveillance.
The “paypal mafia” photographed at Tosca in San Francisco, Oct, 2007.
Back row from left: Jawed Karim, co-founder Youtube; Jeremy Stoppelman CEO Yelp; Andrew McCormack, managing partner Laiola Restaurant; Premal Shah, Pres of Kiva; 2nd row from left: Luke Nosek, managing partner The Founders Fund; Kenny Howery, managing partner The Founders Fund; David Sacks, CEO Geni and Room 9 Entertainment; Peter Thiel, CEO Clarium Capital and Founders Fund; Keith Rabois, VP BIz Dev at Slide and original Youtube Investor; Reid Hoffman, Founder Linkedin; Max Levchin, CEO Slide; Roelof Botha, partner Sequoia Capital; Russel Simmons, CTO and co-founder of Yelp
Fortune Magazine ran an article about these men in 2007, and even asked them to dress up as traditional mafia gangsters. These men are the new tech elite who wield immense power and influence. Elon Musk’s deep ties to Donald Trump shone a new light on how deeply the so-called PayPal Mafia has become embedded in politics and geopolitical affairs.
I reported how Peter Thiel provided J.D. Vance a platform to enter politics. Thiel introduced Vance to Silicon Valley and welcomed him into the scene of the tech elite. Theil’s Palantir was recently awarded a massive contract to create the first US federal centralized government database that will house every piece of data on every American citizen. Again, this is happening under the premise of convenience.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration, and the Department of Education have already begun working with Palantir engineers to develop the most extensive federal database in US history. Social security numbers, medical claims, tax filings, bank information, immigration records, education records, debt—every piece of information that various agencies have collected on American citizens will be transferred to the coming centralized database.
Every world leader from Putin to Pope Leo XIV has issued dire warnings over advancing AI technology, believing it is the biggest threat to the future of civilization. The Big Beautiful Bill has several provisions related to AI, most notably a 10-year moratorium period during which state and local governments will be prohibited from regulating AI.
The bill awards the Department of Commerce $500 million to secure federal IT systems using AI. The Department of Defense, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Health and Human Services will also receive direct funding to promote the use of AI technology.
Prohibiting state regulations ensures that all technology is guarded and controlled by the federal government. There is resistance from both parties, as those who understand technology know the power this would provide the federal government.
“We don’t get the full bill text until very close to the time to vote for it, and so that was one section that was two pages that I didn’t see,” Marjorie Taylor Greene stated, adding, “I find it so problematic that I’m willing to come forward and admit there are two pages that I didn’t read, because I never want to see a situation where state rights are stripped away.”
Thirty-five lawmakers in California, composed of three Republicans and 32 Democrats, sent a letter to Congress to warn them that the AI provision “threatens public safety, undermines innovation, and violates the principles of federalism.”
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) called the provision a “giant gift to Big Tech.” This ban will allow AI companies to ignore consumer privacy protections, let deepfakes spread, and allow companies to profile and deceive consumers using AI. After stopping comprehensive national privacy from passing last year, Republicans are going after states and leaving consumers unprotected online,” she stated.
There are theories that the Elon v. Trump clash is based on this provision. Regardless, the PayPal Mafia tech elite have aligned in a form of techno-feudalism, and they’ve successfully entered the US government. Thiel’s Palantir feeds intelligence to the government. Musk receives massive state subsidies for Tesla and SpaceX while criticizing government inefficiency. Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, funds political influence operations and AI censorship platforms under the banner of democracy.
What we are witnessing is the consolidation of influence outside the democratic process.
