{"id":3574,"date":"2026-04-02T06:10:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/3574\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T06:10:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:10:36","slug":"peter-thiel-ties-put-major-german-military-drone-deal-on-shaky-ground-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/3574\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Thiel ties put major German military drone deal on shaky ground \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe fact is that Peter Thiel openly rejects our democracy. We do not know how large his influence at Stark is. And even worse: The federal government cannot explain it,\u201d Greens lawmaker Jeanne Dillschneider told POLITICO. \u201cWe need drones, no one disputes that. But the question of how large Thiel\u2019s influence is must be clarified before we procure them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Thiel Foundation, a private foundation set up by Peter Thiel and contacted by POLITICO in an effort to seek a response, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The confidential Stark contract, seen by POLITICO, is structured as a seven-year framework agreement with an initial fixed order worth \u20ac268.6 million. If all optional orders are exercised, the total value could rise to roughly \u20ac2.86 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement covers the serial production of \u201cdeployment sets,\u201d each consisting of 20 loitering munitions, a ground control station, spare parts and software and training packages. It would be one of Germany\u2019s first purchases of loitering drones, which have become a low-cost weapon of choice in Ukraine after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear what Thiel\u2019s share in the company is. The German-born investor, who is also an American citizen, is known for his support for President Donald Trump and for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/trump-ally-and-tech-billionaire-peter-thiel-brings-antichrist-warning-to-paris-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bankrolling conservative candidates<\/a> such as Vice President JD Vance, aligning himself with the populist wing of the Republican party.<\/p>\n<p>That has raised concerns among German lawmakers,\u00a0affecting the outlook for parliamentary approval of the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe fact is that Peter Thiel openly rejects our democracy. We do not know how large his influence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[2417,1062,2421,399,1102,12,1615,2056,233,249,3707,2043,1332,1452,228,1742,1086,4270,932,642,997,2445,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-3574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peter-thiel","8":"tag-benchmarks","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-data","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-democracy","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-drones","15":"tag-exports","16":"tag-friedrich-merz","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-governance","19":"tag-investment","20":"tag-military","21":"tag-munitions","22":"tag-peter-thiel","23":"tag-procurement","24":"tag-rights","25":"tag-safety","26":"tag-security","27":"tag-software","28":"tag-startups","29":"tag-transport","30":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116333630186780919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}