Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley’s highest profile Trump supporter, called for a federal investigation into Google, alleging Chinese intelligence has infiltrated the tech giant.
The billionaire investor said the FBI and CIA should look into the alleged infiltration while speaking at the National Conservatism Conference on Sunday.
“I’m not sure quite how to put this, I would like them to be asked in a not excessively gentle manner,” he said.
He also slammed Google for working with China to develop a censored search engine, though that project has been shuttered, and referenced the company’s decision to not renew a contract with the Defense Department that gave the military access to its artificial intelligence tools.
“Is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the US military … because they are making the sort of bad, short-term rationalistic [decision] that if the technology doesn’t go out the front door, it gets stolen out the backdoor anyway?” he asked.
