Silicon Valley billionaire and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Peter Thiel, has sparked controversy by holding lectures on the Antichrist in Rome, Italy. The lectures, which are closed to the media, are similar to his previously delivered lectures in Paris and San Francisco. They include Thiel's thoughts on the theology, history, literature and politics of the Anticrist, a term used to describe someone who opposes or denies Christ. In the lectures, Thiel argues that the Antidrist could manifest as a global government system that could take power by exploiting citizen's fears about artificial intelligence, climate change, or nuclear war. However, several Vatican institutions, including the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University, the Dominican university in Rome have denied being involved in these discussions.