# Joe Lonsdale — News Log Rolling chronological record of news developments. Major items that change the structural analysis get promoted to [[Joe Lonsdale]]. This log preserves the full context and source links. For Erebor Bank developments, see also [[Palmer Luckey News Log]]. --- ## 2026-10-11–12 — "Our Society Today Is Too Soft": Lonsdale Defends Luckey's Case for Public Executions **Source:** Mother Jones, October 12, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **When [[Palmer Luckey]] argued on X that executions should be "public and brutal" rather than "private and medicalized," [[Joe Lonsdale]] was the defense-world voice who stepped in behind him: "Palmer Luckey and George Washington are not barbaric," adding that "our society today is too soft in ways that cause our fellow citizens harm."** The exchange ran against the backdrop of [[Pete Hegseth]]'s announced plan to livestream a firing-squad execution — a plan Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. Thom Tillis had both publicly rejected. **This is the same move as the AI-safety entry below, pointed at a different target.** In September Lonsdale told an audience that AI-safety concern was a manufactured panic serving regulatory capture, and named [[Josh Hawley]] as part of the problem. Here he characterizes squeamishness about state killing as softness that *harms* citizens. In both cases the rhetorical structure is identical: the restraint is the real danger, the people urging restraint are the real problem, and the speaker's position is framed as the historically normal one. The George Washington citation does the same work the "manufactured panic" framing did — it relocates the controversial position into the American mainstream and leaves the objection looking like a recent affectation. Worth noting as a pattern datapoint: Lonsdale defends fellow founders against institutional criticism faster and more publicly than he defends policy positions of his own, and he has done it from the left flank of the party as readily as the right — in September he attacked [[Donald Trump]]'s $5,000 check as a "bread and circus bribe" the same week he co-hosted a Dallas fundraiser with [[Donald Trump Jr.]] **Lane note.** Corporate activity at the four Tier-1 defense companies belongs to the defense-corp beat. This is Lonsdale's own speech. ⚠️ **Single-sourced.** Lonsdale's quotes here come from one outlet's reporting of his social-media posts; the posts themselves were not independently retrieved for this entry. **Sources:** - [Mother Jones: "Pete Hegseth's firing squad livestream has fans in the defense industry"](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/hasan-hegseth-firing-squad-livestream-execution-palantir-anduril-luckey/) --- ## 2026-09-17 — Lonsdale Calls AI Safety a Manufactured Panic Serving "Regulatory Capture," and Names Josh Hawley as Part of the Problem **Source:** The Will Cain Show, September 17, 2026, via RealClearPolitics; CNBC interview, September 22, 2026. ⚠️ The September 17 quotes are single-source (RCP's own clip/transcript). ### 🟡 Notable **[[Joe Lonsdale]] argued that AI-safety advocacy is largely manufactured fear — "There's a panic going on because they're trying to scare people" — deployed to justify regulatory frameworks that amount to "regulatory capture" by "globalists." His alternative: no preemptive regulation, but corporate liability after the fact. "The right should be against regulation, but for liability to hold companies accountable." He criticized Sen. [[Josh Hawley]] by name for backing a regulatory approach. He repeated the core argument on CNBC five days later — no existential risk, hold companies accountable for damage.** **The liability-not-regulation position is the one to track, because it is the opposite of what [[Alex Karp]] said the same week.** Karp told CNBC on September 17 that AI labs "have to be nationalized" precisely *because* liability exposure is unmanageable. Lonsdale, on the same day, said liability is the *whole* answer and regulation is the danger. Two Palantir co-founders, same news cycle, opposite conclusions from the same premise that AI will cause harm somebody must pay for. Karp's clients are enterprises and governments that would be defendants; Lonsdale's portfolio is early-stage companies for whom a liability regime is a cost deferred to a stage most of them never reach, while a licensing regime is a barrier at the seed round. Both men are describing their own balance sheets. The Hawley attack is the second signal. The tech right's fight over AI regulation is no longer with Democrats — it is with the populist wing of its own coalition, and a donor of Lonsdale's size naming a sitting Republican senator is an escalation from argument to pressure. **Sources:** - [RealClearPolitics: "Palantir Co-Founder: AI Panic Is Being Used To Push Communism, Globalism, And Regulatory Capture"](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/09/17/palantir_co-founder_ai_panic_is_being_used_to_push_communism_globalism_and_regulatory_capture.html) - [CNBC: "Joe Lonsdale on AI: Don't see any existential risk, but hold companies accountable for any damage"](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/09/22/joe-lonsdale-on-ai-dont-see-any-existential-risk-but-hold-companies-accountable-for-any-damage.html) --- ## 2026-09-10 — "Bread and Circus Bribes": Lonsdale Attacks Trump's $5,000 Check the Same Week He Co-Hosts a Dallas Fundraiser With Trump Jr. **Source:** Mediaite; MEAWW, September 10, 2026; Punchbowl News (Dallas event, September 8). ### 🔴 Major **[[Joe Lonsdale]] publicly opposed [[Donald Trump]]'s proposed $5,000-per-person payment conditioned on a Republican midterm win: "I am hugely in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin, but am strongly against bread and circus bribes." Challenged online, he suggested sarcastically that the government print $5 million per person instead. The same week, he co-hosted the "Great American Midterm Party" in Dallas alongside [[Donald Trump Jr.]], [[Kevin McCarthy]] and other GOP fundraising figures, with entry tiers running from $10,000 to $250,000.** **The split is the item, not the insult.** This page recorded the $5,000 promise on September 9 as a $1.2 trillion commitment against $154 billion in tariff revenue. A week later the donor class's most vocal institutional builder called it a bribe — in public, by name, while writing checks to the same party's midterm operation. That is the shape of the tech-right's actual relationship to Trumpist populism: full alignment on deregulation, antitrust posture and defense procurement; open contempt for direct transfers to voters. The reason it matters beyond the quote is that the fiscal instruments this ecosystem wants — permanent expensing, a light-touch AI framework, procurement reform — all require a Republican majority, and a $1.2 trillion giveaway is the one policy that could consume the fiscal space for all of them. Lonsdale is not objecting to spending. He is objecting to spending on the wrong constituency. Note the contrast with [[JD Vance]]'s data-center split three weeks earlier: the administration's politicians are moving toward the voters' pocketbook complaints, and its financiers are moving away from them. **Sources:** - [Mediaite: "GOP Megadonor Trashes Trump's Proposed $5K 'Circus Bribes': I'm 'Strongly Against'"](https://www.mediaite.com/politics/gop-megadonor-trashes-trumps-proposed-5k-circus-bribes-im-strongly-against/) - [MEAWW: "'Circus bribe': Trump's $5K announcement upsets major GOP donor who threw afterparty at Dallas"](https://news.meaww.com/circus-bribe-trumps-5-k-announcement-upsets-major-gop-donor-who-threw-afterparty-at-dallas) - [Punchbowl News: "Inside the GOP's big-money Dallas events"](https://punchbowl.news/article/campaigns/gop-big-money-dallas/) --- ## 2026-09-09 — 8VC Lands on the Covenant Cap Table Alongside Founders Fund and a16z **Source:** CNBC, September 9, 2026; *Washington Post*, September 9, 2026; Reuters (via U.S. News); CTech; Dallas Innovates. ### 🟡 Notable **[[8VC]] is named among the lead investors in [[Covenant]], the cruise-missile startup that exited stealth on September 9 with more than $250 million raised at a valuation above $1 billion — sharing the cap table with [[Peter Thiel]]'s [[Founders Fund]], [[Andreessen Horowitz]], Lux Capital, Aleph and [[Lightspeed Venture Partners]].** Covenant's Anthem is a ground-launched cruise missile with a payload above 200 kg, pitched against RTX's Tomahawk on cost, built at a new plant in Grand Prairie, Texas with serial production from early 2027. Full details on [[Peter Thiel News Log]]. **Why it matters here specifically.** The August 31 Sludge investigation logged below documents [[Cicero Institute]]'s sister entity lobbying on **defense procurement** under a second name, through a firm [[Joe Lonsdale]] controls, which also lobbies for [[Palantir]]. Nine days later Lonsdale's venture firm is a named backer of a company whose business is selling munitions to the U.S. Army and Navy. The two facts do not establish a connection and nothing in the reporting alleges one — but they are the two halves of the conflict structure this log exists to document, dated inside the same fortnight, and they should be read together rather than as separate items. **Sources:** - [CNBC: "Defense tech firm Covenant opens U.S. missile factory, exits stealth"](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/09/defense-tech-covenant-anthem-missile.html) - [Washington Post: "Peter Thiel-backed firm to make low-cost missiles amid U.S. shortage"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/09/09/peter-thiel-backed-firm-make-low-cost-missiles-amid-us-shortage/) - [Dallas Innovates: "Defense startup Covenant exits stealth with Grand Prairie missile factory and $250M raise"](https://dallasinnovates.com/defense-startup-covenant-exits-stealth-with-grand-prairie-missile-factory-and-250m-raise/) --- ## 2026-09-06 — The Homelessness Count Gets Restated — 21 States Considered, 16 Passed — and the Next Target Is Federal Housing Money **Source:** *Salt Lake Tribune*, September 6, 2026 (carrying what appears to be *New York Times* syndicated copy). ### 🟡 Notable **New reporting on [[Cicero Institute]]'s homelessness campaign puts the tally at 21 states that have considered Cicero-backed camping bans or homelessness laws and 16 that have passed them — and reports the group is now working with the Trump administration to redirect federal funding away from housing subsidies and toward forced treatment.** Named states where Cicero helped implement camping bans: Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky. **Read against the August 22 entry, not instead of it.** The *Washington Post* piece logged below counted **85 bills passed in a year and policies enacted in 15 states**. This counts 21 considered and 16 passed, which is a different unit — states rather than bills — and may be a genuinely new investigation or a re-cut of the same material; the [[New York Times]] original could not be retrieved to confirm. **Single-source; treat the 21/16 figures as provisional.** **The new content is the federal turn.** Everything this log has recorded about [[Cicero Institute]] operates at the state level, which is the whole design — model legislation, state-by-state, below the coverage threshold. Moving to redirect *federal* housing appropriations toward compelled treatment is a jurisdictional escalation, and it is the point at which the state-level model-bill strategy converts into control of the funding stream the states depend on. Watch for whether this surfaces in an HUD rule, an appropriations rider, or an executive order. **Sources:** - [Salt Lake Tribune: "How Palantir's Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute are shaping homelessness policies"](https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/09/06/how-palantirs-joe-lonsdale-cicero/) --- ## 2026-08-31 — Sludge: Cicero Lobbies on Defense Procurement Under a Second Name, Through a Firm Lonsdale Controls, Which Also Lobbies for Palantir **Source:** Sludge, August 31, 2026 (updated September 1), drawing on IRS filings 2021–2024, federal lobbying disclosures, and Virginia business records. ### 🔴 Major **Sludge reports that the [[Cicero Institute]] lobbies Congress and the Pentagon on defense procurement under the alternate name American Phalanx, and that Cicero paid more than $11.4 million between 2021 and 2024 to Arpinum, a company [[Joe Lonsdale]] controls.** The chain as reported: Lonsdale is the sole member of both the 501(c)(3) Cicero Research and the 501(c)(4) Cicero Action, giving him the power to seat and remove their boards. Cicero names Arpinum a related organization in its IRS disclosures, and Cicero's executive director was an Arpinum employee as of 2024. Cicero Action's federal lobbying runs through Anchor & Arrow — which Virginia business records show is another registered name for Arpinum — and Anchor & Arrow also lobbies for [[Palantir]] on "defense acquisition reform and defense innovation," through lobbyist John Noonan, co-author of Lonsdale's January 2025 defense-acquisition essay. Lonsdale's named defense holdings include [[Palantir]], [[Anduril]], [[Saronic Technologies]] and [[Epirus]]. **What the August 22 entry left out.** The *Washington Post* piece nine days earlier mapped Cicero's homelessness model legislation — 85 bills, 15 states, 11 criminalizing homelessness. This adds the other half of the same entity: the think tank that writes state camping bans is registered to lobby the Pentagon on procurement rules, using a vendor the founder owns, which is separately retained by a company the founder is invested in. That is not a think tank with a defense program. It is a single controlled entity presenting as a charity in one arena and as a lobbying shop in another, with the founder on both sides of the payment. **Verification status — read before promoting.** This is 🟡 **SINGLE-SOURCE**. The $11.4M Arpinum figure and the Arpinum/Anchor & Arrow identity appear in Sludge and nowhere else found; the American Phalanx lobbying claim traces upstream to a National Homelessness Law Center research memo dated July 23, 2026. The underlying documents — IRS Forms 990 and LDA filings — are public and checkable, and should be pulled directly before any of this is promoted to [[Joe Lonsdale]] or [[Cicero Institute]]. **Sources:** - [Sludge: "Lonsdale Nonprofit Lobbies on Defense Policy Tied to His Investments"](https://readsludge.com/2026/08/31/lonsdale-nonprofit-lobbies-on-defense-policy-tied-to-his-investments/) - [National Homelessness Law Center statement, July 23, 2026](https://homelesslaw.org/statement07232026/) --- ## 2026-08-22 — The Post Maps the Cicero Pipeline: 85 Bills Passed in a Year, Policies Enacted in 15 States, 11 of Them Criminalizing Homelessness **Source:** Washington Post, August 22, 2026 (Kyunghyang Shinmun English summary, August 24, 2026, used for figure verification). ### 🔴 Structurally Significant **The Washington Post, citing twelve sources across political and business circles, reported that the [[Cicero Institute]] — which Lonsdale founded in 2019 — is the template behind the administration's break with Housing First, and put numbers on the throughput: Cicero-proposed homelessness policies enacted in 15 states, 11 of which criminalize acts of homelessness, and 85 Cicero-backed bills passed nationwide last year, roughly double the prior year's count.** The mechanism the Post describes is the one this log has been assembling piecemeal: not a donation pipeline but a legislative-text pipeline. Model bills go out to state legislatures; the ones that pass become the precedent base for federal policy. The Post reports that Lonsdale exchanges text messages with [[JD Vance]] and hosts senators at his home, and that his private company gave $1 million in 2024 to a corporate PAC supporting [[Donald Trump]]. The origin story the Post traces is unusually specific for a policy-shop profile: roughly seven years ago, Lonsdale's wife was threatened by homeless individuals in downtown San Francisco while pushing their child in a stroller. The counterweight quotes: Margot Kushel of UCSF's Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative said research going back to the George W. Bush administration shows that forced treatment, jail and temporary shelter do not address root causes. NYU's Paul Barrett said the administration's policy vacuum "creates openings for people who want to push ideas with an authoritarian tinge." HUD counted roughly 266,000 people living on the streets last year, up more than 50% from a decade earlier. **Why structural:** Every other thread on this page describes Lonsdale converting capital into position — 8VC funds, [[Erebor]], the University of Austin, defense-tech portfolio companies, direct political giving. Cicero is the one that converts position into *law*, and it does so at the layer with the least scrutiny and the lowest cost per unit of change: state legislatures, where a model bill with a plausible title and no organized opposition passes on a voice vote. Eighty-five bills in a year is not lobbying volume; it is drafting volume. The KB should treat Cicero as the same category of object as the older model-legislation shops rather than as a think tank — the output is statutory text, and the distribution network is what was purchased. Watch for the federal codification step: the state precedent base is now large enough to be cited as consensus. **Sourcing note:** all figures above originate in a single Washington Post investigation. The Kyunghyang Shinmun account is a summary of that reporting, not independent confirmation. **Sources:** - [Washington Post: "How Palantir co-founder's once-fringe crusade spread across Trump's America"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/08/22/how-palantir-co-founders-once-fringe-crusade-spread-across-trumps-america/) - [Kyunghyang Shinmun (English) summary, August 24, 2026](https://www.khan.co.kr/en/article/202608240721037) --- ## 2026-08-11 — The FT Revises the Number Up: Erebor's Round Is $9.5B, Not $8B — and the Bank Has Started Lending, Beginning With $200M to a Nuclear Startup **Source:** Financial Times via CoinDesk, August 11, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **One day after the Axios report logged below, the Financial Times put [[Erebor]]'s in-progress round at a ~$9.5B valuation rather than $8B, with deposits at $4.6B by the end of July — up from $1.1B at the end of March. The round would more than double the $4.35B mark set earlier this year.** Two details revise the picture materially. First, the investor list is longer and more establishment than the August 10 entry had it: [[Lux Capital]], Human Capital, [[Valor Equity Partners]], [[Andreessen Horowitz]], and SV Angel are all expected to make large commitments alongside existing backers [[8VC]] and Haun Ventures. Second — and this is the new category of fact — Erebor has begun lending. It led a **$200M credit facility for [[Valar Atomics]]** as administrative agent, syndicating alongside JPMorgan, Crescent Cove, and Hercules Capital; the nuclear startup announced the facility in the same window as a $1B Series B led by [[Sequoia Capital]]. The FT also supplies the regulatory reason the raise is necessary at all: the OCC requires Erebor to hold a leverage ratio of at least 12% for its first three years, so balance-sheet growth of this speed forces equity in behind it. **Why it matters:** The August 10 entry called this the "money layer of the Thiel-network stack" and flagged concentration risk in a narrow deposit base. The Valar facility shows the other half of the loop closing — the deposits are now being lent back out to the same ecosystem, in this case to a nuclear company whose customer thesis is the AI data-center load documented in [[The Quest for 90 Gigawatts]]. A bank chartered in February is syndicating nine-figure project credit with JPMorgan by August. For the [[Joe Lonsdale]] file: [[8VC]] seeds portfolio companies, those companies bank at Erebor, Erebor lends to the sector, and the equity appreciation runs back to the same partners — with a federally mandated 12% leverage floor as the only external constraint disclosed so far. Watch the final valuation when the round closes, and watch whether the OCC comments on related-party lending. Sources: - [CoinDesk: "Crypto-friendly bank Erebor in talks to raise $1.5 billion at $9.5 billion valuation: FT"](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/08/11/crypto-friendly-bank-erebor-in-talks-to-raise-usd1-5-billion-at-usd9-5-billion-valuation-ft) - [Financial Times (original report)](https://www.ft.com/content/eae5a1cc-5d15-48c9-9d24-2b7094fda5ba) - [Valar Atomics: "Announcing our $1B Series B Led By Sequoia"](https://www.valaratomics.com/docs/Announcing-our-1B-Series-B-Led-By-Sequoia) --- ## 2026-08-10 — Erebor Nears a $1.5B Raise at ≥$8B — Deposits Quadruple to ~$4B and the Bank Expects Profitability by Year-End **Source:** Web search sweep, August 11, 2026. ### 🔴 Major **[[Erebor]] — the national bank [[Joe Lonsdale]] co-founded with [[Palmer Luckey]] — is in talks to raise roughly $1.5B at a valuation of at least $8B, Axios reported August 10. Deposits went from $1.1B at the end of March 2026 to about $4.05B by mid-year, and the bank now says it expects to be profitable by the end of 2026.** The numbers fill in the outline the July 2 entry sketched. Erebor launched with roughly $635M in initial capital and took its national charter in February 2026 — the first granted under this administration. Its December 2025 round, $350M led by [[Lux Capital]], set a $4.35B post-money mark; the round now being discussed would nearly double that in about seven months. The book is concentrated in exactly the sectors the Thiel-network portfolio occupies: AI companies, defense contractors, advanced manufacturing, and crypto businesses, served out of Columbus, Ohio with native stablecoin rails, crypto-collateralized lending, and API payments. Founders Fund, 8VC, Haun Ventures, and Lux Capital are all on the cap table, with Luckey on the board. **Why it matters:** The July 2 entry called Erebor "the money layer of the Thiel-network stack" and flagged that it was compounding faster than regulators had processed what they chartered. This is the confirming print. A bank chartered six months ago is carrying $4B in deposits, claims a path to profitability inside its first calendar year, and is priced at roughly twice what it was worth at the turn of the year — while banking the same defense and crypto firms its own investors fund. For the Lonsdale file specifically, note the closed loop: [[8VC]] Fund 7 ($1.5B, closed July) seeds the portfolio companies that become Erebor's depositors, and Erebor's equity appreciation accrues to the same partners. Watch for the round to actually close, the final number, and whether the OCC says anything about concentration risk in a deposit base this narrow. Sources: - [Axios Pro: "Palmer Luckey's Erebor nears $1.5B raise at $8B valuation"](https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2026/08/10/erebor-raise-8-billion-valuation) - [Crypto Briefing: "Erebor plans to raise $1.5B to support tech startups at an $8B+ valuation"](https://cryptobriefing.com/erebor-bank-raise-15-billion-tech-startups/) - [Benzinga: "Palmer Luckey-Backed Erebor Raises Stakes in Race to Become Tech's Next Big Bank"](https://www.benzinga.com/markets/private-markets/26/08/61084718/palmer-luckey-backed-erebor-raises-stakes-in-race-to-become-techs-next-big-bank) --- ## 2026-07-13 — Lonsdale Floats Forgoing Patents to Keep IP From China; Media Blitz Around Record Fund 7 **Source:** Web search sweep, August 1, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **In a July 13 Bloomberg TV appearance tied to [[8VC]]'s record $1.5B Fund 7, Lonsdale claimed China is "actively appropriating" IP from US AI and life-science startups, called the US patent office "completely broken," and suggested startups consider forgoing patents entirely rather than disclose inventions Beijing can copy.** The remarks came amid a mid-to-late-July media run: a Fox Business hit arguing [[NVIDIA]] should not sell advanced AI chips to China, and July 28 appearances (Will Cain Show, The Claman Countdown) blaming "incompetent government" for the rise of democratic socialism and pitching AI plus data-center buildout as the fix. Substantively thin next to the Erebor/Fund 7 structural story, but useful as a read on how the 8VC pitch is being framed publicly: AI-race nationalism, anti-regulatory grievance, and IP hawkishness as a package. Sources: - [Bloomberg: "Lonsdale Suggests Forgoing Patents to Avoid China Taking IP"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-13/lonsdale-suggests-forgoing-patents-to-avoid-china-taking-ip) - [Bloomberg TV: "Palantir Co-Founder Joe Lonsdale on the AI Investment Boom"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-07-13/palantir-co-founder-lonsdale-on-the-ai-investment-boom-video) - [Fox Business: "Nvidia should not be selling advanced AI chips to China"](https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6402352291112) - [RealClearPolitics: Lonsdale on The Will Cain Show, July 28](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/07/28/lonsdale_our_incompetent_government_broke_society_ai_could_be_fixing_that_right_now.html) --- ## 2026-07-02 — Erebor Eyes ≥$8B Valuation as Deposits Nearly Quadruple; 8VC Closes Largest-Ever Fund 7 at $1.5B **Source:** Web search sweep, July 3, 2026. ### 🔴 Major **[[Erebor]] — chartered roughly five months ago — is in talks with investors at a valuation of at least $8B, about double the $4.35B set at the end of 2025, with deposits having nearly quadrupled in the past three months (Bloomberg, July 2). Separately, Lonsdale announced the close of [[8VC]] Fund 7 at $1.5B, the firm's largest ever, up from the $998M Fund 6 and pitched as a "U.S.-led AI industrial revolution" fund targeting productivity, manufacturing, defense, and healthcare (announced on X around July 1).** **Why it matters:** Both halves of the Lonsdale stack are compounding at once. A politically connected crypto/defense-tech bank doubling in paper value within months of its OCC charter is exactly the trajectory the Venezuela pitch (see 2026-06-17 entry) previewed — Erebor is becoming the money layer of the Thiel-network stack faster than regulators have processed what they chartered. And Fund 7 gives 8VC its biggest-ever pool to keep seeding the defense-industrial portfolio that feeds it. See also [[Palmer Luckey News Log]] for the Erebor thread. Sources: - [Bloomberg: "Palmer Luckey's Erebor Bank Eyes at Least $8 Billion Valuation"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-02/palmer-luckey-s-erebor-bank-eyes-at-least-8-billion-valuation) - [Joe Lonsdale on X: 8VC Fund 7 close](https://x.com/JTLonsdale/status/2072195697701441802) - [The Information: "8VC Raises $1.5 Billion Fund"](https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/8vc-raises-1-5-billion-fund) --- ## 2026-06-17 — Erebor OCC Charter + Venezuela Pitch; CNBC on Defense AI Regulation; 8VC Defense Portfolio Scaling **Source:** Web search sweep across March – June 2026. ### 🔴 Structurally Significant (promoted to main entry) **Erebor Bank receives OCC national charter — now pitches Venezuela on US banking access (May 15, 2026)** [[Erebor]], co-founded by Lonsdale and [[Palmer Luckey]] with backing from [[Founders Fund]], Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, and [[8VC]], received a preliminary conditional approval for a national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). With the charter in hand, Bloomberg reported on May 15 that Erebor pitched senior Venezuelan officials on restoring the country's access to the US financial system — correspondent lines with Venezuelan banks plus US sub-accounts for their clients — following US Treasury's General License 57 (April 14, 2026). **Why structural:** Lonsdale and Luckey are running a playbook that fuses defense infrastructure (Anduril) and financial infrastructure (Erebor) simultaneously. The Thiel network now operates an end-to-end stack: Palantir monitors and targets, Anduril builds the weapons, Erebor moves the money. The Venezuela pitch brings that stack into Latin America, the same theater where [[Peter Thiel]] has been building an Argentine presence with [[Javier Milei]]. Sources: - [Bloomberg: "Thiel-Backed Erebor Offers Venezuela Unlikely Banking Lifeline"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-15/thiel-backed-erebor-offers-venezuela-unlikely-banking-lifeline) - [Yahoo Finance: "Peter Thiel-Backed Bank Erebor Raises $350M At $4.35B Valuation"](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peter-thiel-backed-bank-erebor-043223016.html) - [Benzinga: "Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, And Joe Lonsdale Backed Erebor Bank Gets Preliminary Nod From Regulator"](https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/25/10/48242832/peter-thiel-palmer-luckey-and-joe-lonsdale-backed-crypto-friendly-erebor-bank-gets-preliminary-nod-from-us-regulator) **Erebor receives Fundrise Innovation Fund investment (March 2026)** Erebor Bank, operating out of Columbus, OH, received a separate investment from the Fundrise Innovation Fund, broadening its investor base beyond the core Thiel-network consortium. Erebor is explicitly positioned to serve the AI, crypto, and defense sectors — industries that have historically struggled with traditional banking relationships. Source: [FinSMES: "Erebor Bank Receives Investment From Fundrise Innovation Fund"](https://www.finsmes.com/2026/03/erebor-bank-receives-investment-from-fundrise-innovation-fund.html) ### 🟡 Notable **CNBC Squawk Box interview (May 5, 2026) — defense AI regulation, Iran war, government AI review** Lonsdale appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box to discuss the Trump administration's reported consideration of reviewing AI technology before public release, the state of defense spending, and the Iran war. The appearance cements Lonsdale's role as a public voice for the defense-tech VC community — connecting [[8VC]]'s portfolio interests to the ongoing policy debate about who controls AI deployment timelines. **Why notable:** Lonsdale occupies a distinct position from Karp (Palantir operator) and Luckey (Anduril founder) — he is the VC/ecosystem builder who translates defense-tech investment thesis into public policy advocacy. His Squawk Box appearances serve to normalize the defense-tech funding model before a mainstream financial audience. Source: [CNBC: "Watch CNBC's full interview with 8VC founding partner and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale"](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/05/05/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-8vc-founding-partner-and-palantir-co-founder-joe-lonsdale.html)