Watch: Sam Altman, others face off in murder mystery game
What's the story
Silicon Valley's elite recently participated in a game of Mafia, a murder-mystery game of deception. The show was produced by Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. The first episode featured tech luminaries such as OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, and biohacker Bryan Johnson. It was filmed at Tosca Cafe in San Francisco, the same place where the iconic PayPal Mafia photo was taken in 2007.
Game details
How to play Mafia
In Mafia, players are assigned roles randomly, with one being the mafia. The mafia's objective is to eliminate other players while the rest try to identify and eliminate the mafia. The game is all about deception and detecting deception. It has been a popular choice among Silicon Valley insiders for years, according to the show's description.
Player lineup
Who were the players in the 1st episode?
Other than Altman, Luckey, and Johnson, the first episode of Mafia featured a diverse group of players including biohacker Josie Zayner, Wait But Why writer Tim Urban, professional poker player Liv Boeree, AI policy expert Ryan Beiermeister, and Figma founder Dylan Field. Other notable participants were Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike, angel investor Cyan Banister, Flexport founder Ryan Petersen, and Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens. The 12-member game played out over a 33-minute episode with plenty of accusations thrown around.
Upcoming content
Two more episodes to be released
Mike Solana, Founders Fund's CMO and host of the game, announced on X that two more episodes will be released over the next couple of weeks. The show is a part of Silicon Valley's growing trend of embracing new media ventures for marketing and political capital. This comes after OpenAI's acquisition of tech talk show TBPN, further highlighting this shift in the tech industry.
Twitter Post
Watch the 1st episode here
MAFIA EP 001 pic.twitter.com/FDijsKFdJN
— Founders Fund (@foundersfund) June 4, 2026