The Authoritarian Stack

The Authoritarian Stack

How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next

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The Contract That Changed Everything

In late July 2025, deep within the Pentagon’s bureaucratic machinery, the U.S. Army quietly signed away a piece of its sovereignty.

A ten-billion-dollar contract with Palantir Technologies—one of the largest in the Department of Defense’s history—was framed as a move toward “efficiency.”

It consolidated seventy-five procurement agreements into a single contract.

A strategic handover of core military functions to a private company whose founder, Peter Thiel, has declared that “freedom and democracy are no longer compatible.”

The Authoritarian Tech Network:
The Kingmakers

Click on Kingmakers for more info
Donald Trump Jr.The Political ConnectorPeter ThielThe ArchitectMarc AndreessenThe Ideologue of AccelerationElon MuskThe Voice of Right-WingTechno-PopulismOculusPalantirSpaceXDavid SacksThe Crypto CzarThiel CapitalAndurilLux CapitalAlex KarpPalantir1789 Capitala16zFounders FundPalmer LuckeyAnduril, Automated WarfareJ.D. VanceThe Political Vehicle

J.D. Vance, propelled to the vice-presidency by $15 million from Peter Thiel, became the face of tech-right governance. Behind him, Thiel’s network moved into the machinery of the state.

Under the banner of "patriotic tech", this new bloc is building the infrastructure of control—clouds, AI, finance, drones, satellites—an integrated system we call the Authoritarian Stack. It is faster, ideological, and fully privatized: a regime where corporate boards, not public law, set the rules.

Our investigation shows how these firms now operate as state-like powers—writing the rules, winning the tenders, and exporting their model to Europe, where it poses a direct challenge to democratic governance.

Silicon Valley isn’t building apps anymore.
It’s building empires.

State Capture: Personnel Pipeline

To understand why this capture is happening so rapidly, follow the personnel. The revolving door no longer spins between government and industry—it locks them together into a new architecture of power.

Connection
Thiel Thiel
Michael Kratsios
Thiel’s former chief of staff, directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Connection
Anduril executive Anduril executive
Michael Obadal
An Anduril executive, was nominated as Army under-secretary while still holding up to $1 million in company stock.
Under Secretary of the Army Under Secretary of the Army
Connection
Palantir Palantir
Gregory Barbaccia
After a decade at Palantir, is now the federal CIO.
Federal Chief Information Officer Federal Chief Information Officer
Connection
Palantir Palantir
Clark Minor
Health and Human Services' (HHS) Chief Information Officer
Chief Information Officer Chief Information Officer

Detachment 201: The Army’s Executive Innovation Corps

This goes further—commissioning Silicon Valley executives directly into military ranks. In June 2025, four tech executives were sworn in as lieutenant colonels:
The line between contractor and commander has been erased.

Connection
Palantir Palantir
Shyam Sankar
US Army US Army
Connection
Meta Meta
Andrew Bosworth
US Army US Army
Connection
OpenAI OpenAI
Kevin Well
US Army US Army
Connection
OpenAI OpenAI
Bob McGrew
US Army US Army

The Pipeline Made Visible

Unlike old authoritarianism built on fear and force, this new system rules through code, capital, and infrastructure — making resistance feel architecturally impossible.

It’s a self-reinforcing loop:
Ideology fuels venture capital → capital captures the state → the state feeds the same private systems that built it. A new model of power — privatized sovereignty.

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Each layer reinforces the others. Ideology justifies investment. Investment captures state power. State power secures contracts. Contracts build infrastructure. Infrastructure becomes indispensable. Indispensability generates returns. Returns fund more ideology.

The Capital Machine: Financial Flows — From Taxpayers to Venture Capital

Follow the Money

Funding
Government
Tech Companies
Venture Capital
image/svg+xml
Funding

$2.2 B +

European Contracts
Government

$22.45 B / yr

Government Spending
Tech Companies

$1.58 T

Companies Valuations
Venture Capital

$120.4 B

VC Assets

Founders Fund, Thiel’s $17 billion flagship, led Anduril’s $1 billion round at a $30.5 billion valuation. It was the first institutional investor in both Palantir and SpaceX. Palantir’s quarterly revenue now exceeds $1 billion—up 53 percent in government contracts. 1789 Capital epitomizes dynasty. Founded by Thiel’s confidants and joined by Donald Trump Jr., it grew from $150 million to over $1 billion. It channels tens of millions into Musk’s empire—SpaceX for orbital dominance, xAI for military AI. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), through its “American Dynamism” fund, backs defense tech and what it calls builders of the American state.Andreessen rallied Silicon Valley’s billionaire class to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Smaller giants like 8VC and General Catalyst reinforce the pattern. 8VC poured $450 million into Anduril; General Catalyst led a $1.48 billion round.

The Stack: Five Domains of Privatized Sovereignty

Critical state infrastructures are being privatized across five domains—data, defense, space, energy, and money—the foundations of democratic power. These domains form the architecture of privatized sovereignty: a technological regime where power flows through laws, infrastructure and automated platforms.

image/svg+xml

Crypto Sovereignty

A privatized monetary system with quasi-central bank powers, decoupling the issuance and governance of money from democratic control.
Systems
  • Stablecoins under the GENIUS Act
  • $TRUMP token ecosystem
  • Circle and Paxos payment rails
  • Major stablecoin issuer Tether Limited
  • Venture-backed crypto funds (Andreessen Horowitz Crypto, Craft Ventures, 1789 Capital).
Contracts / Measures
  • GENIUS Act (July 18 2025) — federal framework for stablecoin issuance
  • Executive Order 14178 (Jan 23 2025) — bans U.S. CBDC, promotes private digital assets
  • Strategic Bitcoin Reserve & U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile (Mar 6 2025) — embeds cryptocurrencies into U.S. government reserves
  • Disbanding of NCET (Apr 8 2025) — shifts crypto oversight toward lighter regulation

The Nuclear–AI Complex

AI running on Private Grids and Nuclear Power.
Systems
  • Golden Dome (DOGE AI governance)
  • General Matter reactors
  • Valar Atomics
  • AWS GovCloud
  • Azure Gov
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic.
Contracts / Policy
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) & U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) — energy-AI integration initiatives
  • DOE 'Artificial Intelligence for Interconnection (AI4IX)' programme
  • DoD contract: OpenAI awarded ~$200 m for frontier-AI in national security
  • Jan 2025 — mandates AI infrastructure including data-centres powered by nuclear energy
  • May 2025 advances deployment of advanced nuclear reactors
  • Reform of Nuclear Regulatory Commission
  • Jul 2025 — 'Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure'

SpaceX: Orbital Infrastructure

Tagline: Sovereignty outsourced to private orbit.
Systems
  • Starlink (civilian)
  • Starshield (military)
  • Starship (global logistics)
  • Golden Dome (bidding with Palantir and Anduril)
Contracts / Users
  • DoD
  • US Space Force
  • NASA
  • National Security Space Launch
  • NATO
  • Ukraine
  • Italy
  • Israel

Anduril: Autonomous Warfare

Automated warfighting, AI commanding the battlefield.
Systems
  • Lattice OS
  • Ghost Shark
  • Barracuda
  • Roadrunner drones
  • Arsenal-1 AI factory.
Contracts
  • Contracts: $22 B total defense portfolio (DoD 2025)
  • 10-year, $1 billion U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command for counter-drone systems
  • Rheinmetall joint venture (Germany 2025)

Palantir: The Operating System of Government

Privatizing the state’s data and decision making.
Systems
  • Gotham (intelligence)
  • Foundry (DOGE budget automation)
  • ImmigrationOS (ICE tracking)
  • NHS Federated Data Platform
Contracts
  • $10 B U.S. Army Enterprise Agreement
  • ICE Immigration Platform (2025)
  • NHS £330 M data hub
  • German Police

Europe's Deepening Trap

By mid-2025, its reverberations were already felt across Europe. In Rome, Italian defense officials moved to integrate Elon Musk’s Starlink into military communications. In Berlin, Rheinmetall and Anduril expanded their joint venture to deploy autonomous drone swarms for NATO. The German variants of its drones still run on Californian code. Musk livestreams with the AfD’s Alice Weidel, endorsing the German far-right while supplying NATO infrastructure.

In London, the NHS scaled Palantir’s £330 million Federated Data Platform across tens of millions of patient records, By May 2025, the government had to pay KPMG £8 million just to encourage hospital adoption. Meanwhile, a £1.5 billion defense partnership binds Britain to Palantir’s AI systems.

None of these decisions provoked real debate. Few reached front pages. Together, they reveal the systematic outsourcing of European sovereignty to American oligarchs whose ideology openly undermines democracy.

It is a paradox with devastating implications: pursuing digital sovereignty while ceding control through every signed contract.

Each new contract deepens the trap. Once Palantir becomes indispensable, once Anduril’s drones are NATO standard, once nuclear facilities power AI that runs everything else— the transformation is irreversible.

Europe faces an existential choice: build genuine technological sovereignty now, or accept governance by platforms whose architects view democracy as an obsolete operating system.
image/svg+xml

Germany

Anduril + Rheinmetall (June 2025)
  • “European variants” of Barracuda autonomous missiles and Fury AI aircraft.
  • Software: Lattice OS, remotely updated from U.S. servers.
  • Integrated into Bundeswehr and NATO systems.
Palantir Gotham
  • Used by Bundeswehr intelligence and police for data fusion and analysis.
SpaceX Starlink / Starshield
  • Communication backbone for Bundeswehr and civil protection.

United Kingdom

Palantir NHS Federated Data Platform
  • £330 million, 2023–2030; manages >50 million patient records.
  • £8 million KPMG contract (May 2025) to promote hospital adoption
Palantir + UK MoD Defense AI Partnership
  • £1.5 billion, launched 2025; establishes Britain as European hub for Palantir Defense AI.
SpaceX Starlink / Starshield
  • Secure communications for armed forces and emergency services

France

Palantir Platform (Interior Ministry)
  • Deployed for anti-terrorism and predictive policing analytics.
Anduril Systems (EU Frontex Programs)
  • 2025 proposal for border and drone surveillance integration

Italy

SpaceX Starlink Network
  • National deployment (2024–2025) for defense and civil-protection communications.
Exploratory Talks
  • Palantir and Anduril in early discussions with Italian MoD on AI and autonomy.

Ukraine

Starlink (SpaceX) 
  • Battlefield communications.
Palantir MetaConstellation 
  • Targeting and intelligence analysis.
Shield AI / Skydio 
  • Autonomous surveillance and combat drones.

EU / NATO

Data Infrastructure
  • Palantir
Defense, Battelfield, Drones
  • Anduril
  • Rheinmetall
AI + Defense and Energy
  • General Matter
  • AWS Gov
  • Azure
  • OpenAI
  • Meta
Finance / Ideology
  • VC Flows (La Famiglia → General Catalyst → Anduril
  • Helsing)

The Infrastructure of Control

Silicon Valley’s Authoritarian Tech Right is not theorizing this world. They are already building it. The pipelines are operational. The feedback loops are functioning. The sovereignty transfers are completing.

Democracy persists as a legacy interface— maintained for stability, while being systematically hollowed out and replaced.

The question now is whether democratic societies can recognize this formation for what it is—and build alternatives before the infrastructure of control becomes too deeply embedded to dislodge.

The Authoritarian Tech Complex

Explore the Map

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Connections

  • Ideological Alignment
  • Investment
  • Personnel Placement
  • Board and Leadership
  • Policy
  • Procurement
Credits

The Authoritarian Stack
A project led by Prof. Francesca Bria with xof-research.org

Research and editorial team: Francesca Bria, José Bautista
Data analysis: Autonomy Institute
Map development and design: xof-research.org
Web development: José Núñez
Supported by: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Funded by: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Future of Work

This project maps the "Authoritarian Stack"—a network of firms, funds, and political actors turning core state functions into private platforms. Based on an open-source dataset of over 250 actors, thousands of verified connections, and $45 billion in documented financial flows.

The map aggregates and categorizes information from existing online sources to chart actors, institutions, and their relationships. Data handling and normalization were performed by the Autonomy Institute Data Unit. All entries were manually reviewed and verified. The map reflects connections as of October 2025 and is a living, collaborative resource. Report issues to map@xof-research.org.

Rights

The text of this publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can find the complete license text at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The infographics are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You can find the complete license text at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/