From Peter Thiel at the Under 20 Summit #throughglass · · 2 Billion Under 20
“The next Bill Gates will not start an operating system company, the next Larry Page will not start a search engine, and the next Mark Zuckerberg will not start a social network. In some ways it's sort of not true to trying to learn from these people by copying them on the level of these other successful companies.”
On , Peter Thiel, Co-Founder & Chairman at Palantir Technologies, spoke about entrepreneurship during Peter Thiel at the Under 20 Summit #throughglass on 2 Billion Under 20.
In a March 2026 discussion with French historian Emmanuel Todd, Peter Thiel offered his views on U.S. global standing, scientific progress, and geopolitical risks. Thiel disagreed with Todd's characterization of U.S. decline, stating that while the U.S. faces challenges, he is "not convinced that the US is in decline relative to the rest of the world" and argued that "China will disappear before the US disappears at the rate things are going." He also reiterated a long-held view that the world is in an "era of scientific and technological slowdown or even stagnation," attributing this partly to the "dual use potential" of technology, where "as you built more powerful machines, you also built more powerful weapons." Thiel also raised concerns about what he described as "the risk of a totalitarian one-world state, a tyrannical single government that controls the entire world." During the conversation, Todd characterized the U.S. attack on Iran as "an attack on a country" and "shooting heads of states," and described Trump as "the president of the defeat" following U.S. setbacks in Ukraine and against China. Thiel did not directly address those specific characterizations in the provided transcript excerpts.