-독일 국방부가 팔란티어 창업자’ 피터 틸이 투자한 스타크디펜스의 수주가 안보에 위협이 될 수 있다는 우려를 불식시키기 위해 노력
-국방부는 의회에 피터 틸이 스타크디펜스 지분 10% 미만을 보유하고 있으며 회사 운영에 대한 통제권이나 특별한 권한도 없다고 밝힘
-독일 의회는 스타크디펜스 등이 생산하는 체공형 무인기 시스템에 대한 군수 조달 승인을 앞두고 있는 상태
Germany is looking to dispel concerns that a planned order of attack drones for as much as €3 billion ($3.5 billion) from a Peter Thiel-backed defense startup could pose a security threat due to the role of the controversial investor.
The defense ministry told lawmakers in a confidential briefing on Thursday that Thiel is a minority shareholder at Berlin-based Stark Defence and holds a stake of less than 10% through his investment company Thiel Capital, according to people familiar with the discussion.
Stark is majority-owned by its founding team and employees, with the remaining shares distributed among about 50 different shareholders, the people said, asking not to be identified because the briefing wasn’t public.
Germany’s parliamentary budget committee is expected to approve a major drone procurement deal next week as part of a vast expansion of the country’s military capabilities that started after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago. In the run-up to the vote, Stark has come under scrutiny for its connection to Thiel, a German-born US tech billionaire.
The ministry told lawmakers Thiel isn’t a member of Stark’s supervisory board and has no control or other special rights that give him insight into or influence over the operational management of the company. No shareholder, including Thiel, has access to Stark’s technology or influence over its research and development decisions, it added.
The planned contract will include confidentiality clauses ensuring that only the personnel involved in the implementation within the company will have access to confidential information, the ministry said. Furthermore, if Thiel attempted to increase his holding to over 10%, it would trigger an investment review by Germany’s economy and energy ministry and give the government the option of blocking the move, the defense ministry told lawmakers.
A Stark spokeswoman said the information provided by the defense ministry about Thiel’s role and influence at Stark Defense is accurate. She added she was not aware of any plans for Thiel to increase his stake.
The German defense ministry declined to comment. A Thiel spokesperson didn’t reply to a written request for comment.
Thiel is a co-founder of Paypal Holdings Inc. and controversial data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc. He was an early backer of US President Donald Trump in 2016, and has been criticized as anti-democratic, having once written in an essay that he no longer believed “freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Germany’s co-governing Social Democrats have accused Thiel of trying to undermine the democratic order in Germany and other European nations.
“There are men like Peter Thiel who say: democracy and freedom are incompatible,” Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said at a SPD party meeting this month. “These people talk about freedom of expression, but what they mean is domination of opinion.”
Klingbeil accused Thiel and other US tech billionaires of using their power to impose what he called an authoritarian vision of society.
German lawmakers are set to approve two military procurement orders for loitering munition systems, also known as attack or kamikaze drones, during a closed-door meeting on Feb. 25, according to the people.
If the orders are approved, Stark will get an initial tranche of roughly €270 million from an overall contract of as much as €2.9 billion, the people said. Another German startup, Helsing, will get a tranche for the same amount from an overall contract of up to €1.5 billion.
The variation in the full contracts’ values is in part due to differences in how the drones are launched, the defense ministry told lawmakers. Stark’s Virtus system can take off vertically without a launch device and land independently, and therefore be used multiple times. Helsing’s HX-2 system requires a catapult for launch.
The ministry added that Helsing is already selling its HX-2 to other countries so the costs for its development are spread across a larger number of customers.
The first shipment of loitering munitions is scheduled to be delivered in October to a German armored brigade deployed in Lithuania as part of NATO’s posture to protect its eastern flank, and the final shipment is expected in seven years, the people added.