Peter Thiel's hedge fund, Thiel Macro LLC, has disclosed its new portfolio, and it is radically different from the usual tech giants. Instead of betting on chips or software, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir has focused on the electric power sector, allocating $418.7 million across eight positions, dominated by companies involved in electricity generation and transmission.
The quarterly 13F filing with the SEC for the second quarter is the first in the last two reporting periods after Thiel's fund remained silent. Now the picture is clear: from the technology sector, only Amazon (AMZN) remains in the portfolio, accounting for 28.2% of assets. Thiel purchased shares of the retail giant for $118 million, which makes sense given Amazon's expansion of its investment program to $220 billion by 2026—the lion's share of these funds will go toward cloud infrastructure and data centers for artificial intelligence.
The remaining 72% of the portfolio is pure energy. In second place is Argentina's Vista Energy (VIST) with a stake of 18.1% ($75.9 million), which is engaged in shale oil and gas production. Notably, Thiel himself recently moved to Buenos Aires, adding a geopolitical undertone to this bet. The third position is held by Vistra (VST), an operator of power plants, including nuclear units, with a stake of 14.1% ($59.1 million)—and the fund increased this holding during the reporting quarter.
Next come four regulated utility companies: American Electric Power (AEP), DTE Energy (DTE), FirstEnergy (FE), and CMS Energy (CMS), each accounting for 9–10% of the portfolio. Closing out the list is the nuclear startup X-Energy (XE) with a stake of less than 1%. AEP and FirstEnergy have already stated outright that the construction of data centers for AI is driving electricity demand to record levels.
The New Logic of AI Investing
The filing, submitted on August 14 as of June 30, reflects Thiel's strategic pivot. He is not following the path of most, who are buying up chip manufacturers, but is instead betting on the most scarce resource of the AI boom—electricity. Overloading regional grids due to data center demands is becoming a systemic problem, and Thiel appears to see a long-term opportunity in this.
My view: This is not just diversification, but a signal of shifting priorities in the market. While all attention is focused on GPUs and algorithms, the infrastructure hunger—from generation to energy transmission—will become the main bottleneck. Thiel, as an experienced investor, is positioning himself ahead of the crowd, and his portfolio is a clear indicator of where capital will flow in the coming years.