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Paper short abstract

Venture capital aligns technoauthoritarianism with longtermism through its collaboration with the US military. This presentation analyses how VC mobilises Christian religion alongside deep hype to advance promises of civilisational transformation, thereby ensuring its blitzscaling model of growth.

Paper long abstract

This presentation examines how venture capital mobilises Christian beliefs, deep hype and longtermism while engaging technoauthoritarian politics with securing their “blitzscaling” economic growth in being part of the US military-industrial complex.

Recent developments reveal an explicit convergence between technological ambition, religiosity, and neo-reactionary politics. Initiatives like Praxis Nation, backed by relevant VCs, mobilize civilizational slogans such as "reclaim the West." At the same time, Peter Thiel has publicly advocated Christianity's return through organizations like the ACTS 17 Collective. In the meantime, VCs are profiting from rapidly growing military markets in the context of US neo-reactionary politics (Swartz 2025).

The paper analyzes this convergence through the concept of deep hype (Belsunces 2025): long-term, overpromissory dynamics constructing visions of civilizational transformation through future-oriented uncertainties that sustain investment and belief. Drawing on David Noble's The Religion of Technology, the analysis positions this shift as radicalizing a Western tradition linking technical progress to Christian millenarianism, salvation and redemption. Central is the strategic deployment of apocalyptic narratives sacralizing technologies like AGI as quasi-deities.

Beyond discourse, this religious framing functions as a mechanism for the valorisation of crisis (Howard 2024), a fundamental VC strategy. As uncertainty intensifies through the industry's "move fast and break things" ethos, VC actors position themselves as indispensable responders to inevitable social needs—pandemics, geopolitical conflicts—securing market positions and proto-monopolies in advance of democratic deliberation or institutional alternatives. The presentation demonstrates how venture capital are key cultural actors in reenchanting technological authority and governing futures through technoauthoritarian frames.