Emperor Palantir Brings Powerscourt To Court

Peter Thiel. Illustration: Rich People Shit

escribed recently by one Irish journalist as someone who is “known for his scepticism about democracy”, tech billionaire and Dialog co-founder Peter Thiel’s plan for a secretive, elite group August meeting in Powerscourt was not met with a thousands welcomes in Ireland.

And now the cancellation of that meeting has ended up in court, as the organisers seek declarations that the hotel operators acted in breach of contract and that the estate owners wrongfully induced them to do so.

Thiel is perhaps best known as the founder of controversial data integration and analytics software company Palantir, heavily criticised by civil liberties groups around the world for supporting genocide along with its predictive policing, whilst their privacy and security practices have also come under fire.

With a net worth estimated by The New York Times in December 2025 to stand at $27.5b, Thiel is one of the world’s richest individuals, and like his even-more-loaded PayPal buddy Elon Musk, has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes over the years.

With its first meeting being held back in 2006, Dialog is the private, invitation-only group founded by Thiel and Flex Capital’s Auren Hoffman that specialises in closed-door meetings bringing together executives, elected officials and academics to, their one-page website claims, ‘discuss topics off-the-record‘.

Thiel with PayPal co-founder Elon Musk 2000

Just how much of a Bond supervillain organisation Dialog might be is brought into question though by one ex-employee telling Rich People Shit in June, “Working there convinced me the Illuminati could never exist“. They also stated that Thiel was rarely at the office.

Dialog’s latest shindig was due to take place at The Powerscourt Hotel from August 12th to 16th, with a hacktivist leak on BlueSky revealing a possible guest list that included Musk as well as Trump chumps Ted Cruz and Scott Bessant, plus various military, tech, government and industry high-flyers and CEOs. According to another leak in Wired magazine, the subjects up for discussion in Ireland included nuclear power, World War 3, sex and cults.

The event proved to be a major headache for the Powerscourt Estate, the hotel being merely a tenant on their land, owned and operated by the MHL Hotel Collection. The Estate made it clear as the controversy grew that if it was within their remit, they would cancel the event.

It would appear that the protests by North Wicklow Against Genocide at The Powerscourt Hotel proved to be the breaking point for Sugarloaf Ventures (trading as the Powerscourt Hotel and the companies that own the 1,000-acre estate, Powerscourt Estates Ltd and Scalaheen Ltd).

According to a report in Monday’s The Irish Times, it was revealed in court that the manager of the Powerscourt Hotel informed Stonebrick LLC (trading as Dialog) on June 16th of abusive calls, emails and threats of protests, with 15 protestors having gathered that morning in the hotel lobby and entrance. The manager had also met with a local Garda inspector, who stated that the event could be held safely but would require substantial policing and security presence. Stonebrick had expressed its intention to work with the US embassy, the Garda and private security advisors to ensure safety at the event.

Stonebrick also stated that it has around 1,000 members – including government officials and chief executives – and that it holds three large retreats per year. The Dialog event in Wicklow was, they said, a material source of its annual revenue, and they expected to face refunds of some €1.9m.

Judge Eileen Roberts has put the case into one of court vacation sittings on September 2nd.

You can find out more about Dialog here, the Irish retreat here, about Peter Thiel here, and about North Wicklow Against Genocide here.