Overwhelmed by a corruption scandal, which forced him to leave the leadership of the government, the 35-year-old former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz starts again from California. According to the Austrian press, Kurz has signed a contract for a high-level management position with a technology company in Silicon Valley. And in early February, he and his family move to California.
The scoop dates back to Christmas day, when the Austrian tabloids Kronenzeitung e Austria they anticipated that Kurz would start working as a top manager in the United States in February. The Web site Exxpress he later revealed that Palantir, the controversial American data-mining company, had hired the former Austrian chancellor.
Da Tolkien alla Cia
Palentir was founded in 2003 in Silicon Valley by a group of investors including Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur with an American, German passport (born in Frankfurt am Main in 1967 to German parents) and from 2011 a New Zealander (he bought a shelter in New Zealand in case of nuclear war). Republican and great supporter of Donald Trump, Thiel, who holds the role of president in Palantir, co-founded PayPal among other things and sits on the board of Facebook, of which he was among the first external investors.
The company name comes from JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, beloved book by Peter Thiel, where the magical palantri were described as indestructible crystal spheres, used to communicate and to see events in other parts of the world. In 2020, when Palantir went public on Wall Street, it moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver, Colorado.. But it continues to have offices in Silicon Valley, as well as in New York and Washington, to be closer to major customers, which include many US federal agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, but also large corporations such as Morgan Stanely, Airbus. and Stellantis (Ferrari).
Core software of tomorrow. Delivered today the slogan that Palantir uses as a brand to present itself on its website, where it explains to build software that allows organizations to effectively integrate their data, decisions and operations. Among the best known projects of the company that derives its name from the figure Palantir Gotham, the software used by counter-terrorism analysts in the offices of the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) and the United States Department of Defense. But the products offered range from software to combat money laundering, to artificial intelligence and machine learning, from energy to financial services and crypto currencies, from health and life sciences to automotive and mobility.
Not the first time that Peter Thiel has hired prominent politicians in Vienna. In 2015, the former federal leader of the SP, the Austrian Social Democratic Party, Laura Rudas, left politics at 33 to work for Palantir. Now that his political career has abruptly ended (for the second time) following a scandal, Kurz makes the same choice.
Two scandals and a record
Leader of the VP, the Austrian People’s Party, from May 2017 to the beginning of December this year and Federal Chancellor of Austria twice, Kurz was the youngest head of government in the history of Austria, first elected at the age of 31. His rise came to a sudden halt when he was indicted by a corruption investigation, which prompted him to step down from all political positions on December 2, 2021. Between 2016 and 2018, when he was Foreign Minister, allegedly used funds from the Ministry of Finance illegitimately to manipulate the polls in his favor and the Austrian People’s Party and also to facilitate the publication of favorable news in Austrian newspapers. His first term ended similarly, after the so-called Ibiza scandal.
At a press conference in Vienna, Kurz took his leave of political life at the beginning of December, justifying himself wanting to dedicate more time to his family: I am extremely grateful for this time, for all the experiences … and I sincerely hope to have made my contribution. to move our beautiful Austria a bit in the right direction. Kurz, who has recently become dad, however, will move overseas.
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