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A highly unusual inauguration ushers in an American oligarchy. Dean Blundell and Zev Shalev delve into the intricate backstory that spans apartheid South Africa, the dawn of AI, and 'technocracy.' Air Force One landed in darkness. The inauguration was hastily moved indoors. Something very different was happening - this was an inauguration taking place in the eye of a storm.

Hours earlier, President Biden delivered his final address from the Oval Office, speaking of the Statue of Liberty's ability to withstand fierce storms. "She sways a few inches," he warned, "but she never falls into the current below." As he spoke of an emerging oligarchy threatening democracy, few knew that a different kind of storm - codenamed "Salt Typhoon" - had already reshaped America's power structure.

Behind the official explanations of weather and crowd size, a months-long Narativ investigation reveals a hidden realignment of global power. Our reporting traces a transformation that began in the uranium mines of apartheid South Africa and leads directly to America's AI future.

At its center are four men who emerged from apartheid's collapse to reshape Silicon Valley: Peter Thiel, Roelof Botha, David Sacks, and Elon Musk. Their rise parallels China's growing influence in American technology and politics, culminating in this week's unprecedented scenes: tech billionaires lined up in the front row of Trump's indoor inauguration, TikTok's CEO prominently placed, and failed negotiations with Putin suggesting a new global alignment.

The story begins with Pik Botha, South Africa's former foreign minister and grandfather of Silicon Valley kingmaker Roelof Botha. As minister of mineral and energy affairs, he oversaw the uranium program that connected Peter Thiel's father to South Africa's nuclear ambitions. Their vision of technocratic rule - where technical experts and engineers would govern society - didn't die with apartheid. It evolved.

By the time PayPal emerged in the late 1990s, these four men had positioned themselves at the intersection of technology and power. Documents reveal PayPal's original mission wasn't American at all - it was designed as a payment processor for Chinese companies, the first step in a decades-long partnership that would reshape global power.

Today, as Biden's warning about oligarchy echoes through empty halls, we see their technocratic vision coming full circle. From Trump's $500 billion AI initiative to China's new role as America's strategic partner, a transformation decades in the making has reached its culmination.

The question now: can democracy bend without breaking?

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