The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran: Inside the Tech Cult: How Venture Capital Plans to Exit Democracy [View all]

[AStern]

Silicon Valley venture capital isn’t just funding technology. It’s also building an escape plan from democracy.

In this episode of The Nerd Reich, Gil Duran is joined by Olivier Jutel (University of Otago) to examine what can only be described as a tech cult: a small, ideologically aligned group of venture capitalists who have become the de facto state planners of American capitalism.

As many VC funds underperform, leading figures—from Peter Thiel to Marc Andreessen—are turning toward increasingly radical political projects. These include network states, charter cities, special economic zones, crypto-enabled sovereign zones, and heavy investment in AI, surveillance, and war technologies.

The goal is no longer innovation, but power—and a strategy Jutel describes as “exit through the state.”

This conversation breaks down:

How venture capital actually makes money (and why “risk-taking” is largely a myth)

Why VC is clustering around AI, crypto, surveillance, and militarization

What the “network state” really is—and why it’s a political threat

How Trump-era politics fit into VC’s long-term strategy

Why “abundance” narratives collapse under real economic incentives

What’s at stake for democracy, labor, and the future itself

Venture capital is a political cult project—one increasingly willing to dismantle democratic systems to preserve its own power.