Perhaps Anthropic is trying to raise red flags about AI safety by partnering with some of the least trustworthy people in tech. After entering into an agreement for compute power with Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year, the company is reportedly setting up a $13.7 billion deal to get even more processing power from Rum Group, which counts J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel among its earliest investors, according to The Information.
If Rum Group doesn’t sound familiar, you might know it better as Rumble. The “anti-woke” video hosting platform meant to rival YouTube, which, at its peak (if you wanna call it that), attracted “cancelled” talent like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson. Back in 2025, it rebranded to Rum Group and acquired German computing infrastructure company Northern Data. At that point, it pivoted to selling AI infrastructure, and it’s apparently found a client in Anthropic.
Per The Information, while the companies have an agreement on paper, there seem to be some kinks that still need to be ironed out. The publication reported that Anthropic will lease compute from a Rum Group data center in Georgia, which is still under construction. The building, which has already apparently procured 120 megawatts of grid power, is supposed to come online later this year, but it’s not clear if it remains on track to meet that timeline.
Thiel, one of Rumble’s earliest investors, may have mixed feelings about the deal. On one hand, Thiel seems to generally oppose Anthropic’s calls for a slowdown to AI development and suggested just a few months ago that the “woke liberal company” could “rig the elections in 2028” for Democratic candidates. On the other hand, it’ll probably make him more money for his many bunkers for the end of the world.
Thiel seems to have his sights set on bigger issues lately, anyway, like his obsession with the Antichrist. The venture capitalist has been taking his thoughts on the bringer of the end days on tour for about a year now, lecturing (paying) audiences in places like Rome. His latest stop for the show is Nashville, where he’s scheduled to do a four-part series on what he views as the largest existential threat facing humanity, and you can attend for $100.
Thiel’s lectures will be a “closed-door, off-the-record event,” so recording is prohibited, and the hosts “reserve the right to refuse admission at our discretion,” which Thiel hosts have done in the past to keep journalists out.
Seems strange that if you have an urgent warning about the end of the world, you’d monetize it and limit access to a paying audience. Seems like the kind of thing that you’d do if (assuming you actually believed that the end is nigh) you only wanted a certain class of people with certain ideological views to survive it. Also seems like the kind of thing you might do if you don’t really believe the message you’re selling. But who can really say?
Read the full article here
