News Update: Peter Thiel-Related Events on August 29, 2025

Trump Appoints Peter Thiel Acolyte as Acting CDC Director In a move that has sparked widespread concern within public health circles, the White House announced that Deputy Health Secretary Jim O’Neill will serve as the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following the abrupt dismissal of Director Susan Monarez. O’Neill, a long-time associate of billionaire investor Peter Thiel, has no formal medical or scientific background but brings a history of advocating for deregulation and market-based health policies. Critics point to O’Neill’s tenure at Thiel-backed venture firms and his past calls for loosening drug-approval standards as alarming indicators of potential upheaval at the CDC.

Peter Thiel Cautions Against an AI Investment Bubble Billionaire investor Peter Thiel weighed in on the artificial intelligence sector today, urging a shift in focus from prominent AI model developers to the underlying hardware layer dominated by Nvidia. Thiel argued that Nvidia’s leadership in graphics processing units (GPUs) represents the most lucrative and sustainable segment of the AI ecosystem, drawing parallels between the current AI frenzy and the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s. While expressing wariness about excessive speculation, he acknowledged Nvidia’s achievements as the defining success story of the AI surge.