Peter Thiel is not only skeptical of the Giving Pledge, he has been actively working to dismantle it from within, telling signatories to abandon their pledges and calling the organization an “Epstein-adjacent fake boomer club.”
during an interview new york timesThiel claimed that the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic movement in which the world’s richest people pledged to give away 50% or more of their wealth, was outdated. “For the first four or five years, there was a huge amount of people signing up, but somehow it really wore out,” he said. “I don’t know if the brand is entirely negative, but it feels less important for people to be a part of it.”
Wealth disparity in the United States has reached new extremes, with the richest 10% of households owning more than two-thirds of the nation’s wealth, according to the Federal Reserve. Much of the country’s wealth is still in the hands of older generations. Over the past few decades, wealth accumulation has hollowed out the middle class. Philanthropy has long been a practical implementation of trickle-down economic theory. Abandoning this philanthropic framework—one of the most organized efforts in modern history to move wealth out of the pockets of the country’s wealthiest—could be a sign that the funding spigot is tightening.
The Giving Pledge was launched in 2010 by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett. The list of signatories includes some of the country’s wealthiest people, including those who have given away the largest fortunes, such as MacKenzie Scott and the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
While more than 250 signatures were received from the world’s richest global philanthropists, the number of wealthy individuals signing has declined in recent years. According to a list of signatories compiled by the Giving Pledge, only four pledged in 2024 and 14 in 2025. Even as more and more of the world’s richest people reach billionaire status every month, ForbesThe latest estimates show that there are more than 3,400 billionaires in the world.
Thiel said he has urged some people to remove their signatures. “I strongly discouraged people from signing it, and then I gently encouraged them to unsign it,” Thiel said. It is worth noting that in the transcripts and audio lectures provided by Thiel Reuters Last year, he recalled calling on Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and soon-to-be first billionaire, to retract his pledge, warning the Tesla founder that his wealth would go to “left-wing nonprofits of Bill Gates’ choosing.”