Peter Thiel Receives the Axel Springer Award 2026

Entrepreneur and investor recognized for his transformative impact on the digital age / Discussion focused on innovation, freedom, and the future of Western societies

Axel Springer today presented entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel with the Axel Springer Award 2026 in Berlin. With this distinction, Axel Springer honors an individual who has created entirely new markets, transformed existing ones, and made a lasting impact on the technological, economic, and societal debates of our time.

Peter Thiel is one of the most influential entrepreneurs and investors of the digital era. As a co-founder of PayPal, he helped lay the foundation for the global digital payments industry. As Facebook's first outside investor, he recognized the transformative potential of social networks at an early stage. As a co-founder of Palantir, he built one of the most valuable companies of our time and one that plays a critical role in strengthening democratic resilience. Through Founders Fund, he has backed numerous companies whose innovations now shape entire industries, from artificial intelligence and biotechnology to space exploration.

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner said: "Tonight, we are honoring the most impactful German of our times, some people say the best venture capitalist of the 21st century, and in any case an unconventional thought leader and principled contrarian. The purpose of the Axel Springer Award is to encourage entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and new thinking."

Highlights from the event are available in the following video:

Bari Weiss, Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, paid tribute to the award recipient as a thinker and entrepreneur who continually challenges conventional wisdom and sparks debate: "Peter Thiel defies categorization. And that is just one of the many things that confounds his critics. But what those who love him and those who love him just a little bit less can't dispute is this: He sees things before the rest of us do. He knows what is coming and seems consistently to get there first. It's an extraordinary quality and one that has given him an astonishing track record."

Additional perspectives were provided through video messages from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and chess world champion and dissident Garry Kasparov. Kasparov highlighted the significance of avid chess player Peter Thiel for the development of the technology sector, while also acknowledging his controversial role in public debate: "The 21st century has its titans. Many of them are Axel Springer Award winners now, including Peter Thiel. In every century, these titans were often hailed and vilified in equal measure. Undaunted, Peter has been at the epicenter for the entire first quarter of the digital century and is still pushing ahead."

The centerpiece of the evening was a conversation between Mathias Döpfner, Peter Thiel, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin. The discussion covered their early years in Silicon Valley, the creation of PayPal, and how Western societies can preserve their capacity for innovation.

As a special memento of the evening, Peter Thiel received a first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Unfinished Tales, published in 1980. The gift reflected Thiel's admiration for Tolkien's work, which has also inspired the names of several companies he has founded or funded.

The evening concluded with a musical performance by pianist Elisaveta Blumina.

To accompany the award ceremony, a new episode of the MD Meets podcast featuring Peter Thiel was produced. The episode is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7yl7fEHeKM

About the Axel Springer Award

The Axel Springer Award is an honorary distinction and carries no monetary endowment. Previous recipients include Mark Zuckerberg, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Jeff Bezos, Shoshana Zuboff, Elon Musk, Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, and now Peter Thiel. More information about the award and previous recipients is available at Axel Springer Award.