Former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz turns 40 on August 27, 2026. He now works with artificial intelligence in Tel Aviv, far from politics in Vienna.
Kurz has left politics and moved into a fast-growing industry, Avisen Danmark reports, based on material from the news agency Ritzau. He lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he runs the company Dream Security together with Israeli Shalev Hulio. The startup develops AI models intended to help states protect critical infrastructure.
In June, the company received a new round of funding from investors of 260 million dollars, according to the Times of Israel as cited by Avisen Danmark. That investment placed the firm’s value at three billion dollars, or 19.5 billion Danish kroner. Kurz founded Dream Security in 2023.
Kurz was born in Vienna and was an only child. After military service he began studying law at the University of Vienna in 2005. He had already joined the youth movement of the conservative ÖVP, and he later gave up his studies for political work.
In 2011, at the age of 25, he was given a government post responsible for the integration of refugees. Two years later he entered the Austrian parliament and became foreign minister. He took over as ÖVP chairman in 2017, the same year the party won a landslide election victory.
On December 18, 2017, Kurz took office as chancellor of a coalition between the ÖVP and the right-wing Freedom Party. He was 31 years old and the youngest head of government in a Western democracy. The government resigned about 18 months later, after the so-called Ibiza affair over secret donations in the Freedom Party.
The following election returned him to the chancellor’s office in January 2020, this time in coalition with the Greens. Corruption allegations then began to surface, and Kurz stepped down again in October 2021. His immunity was lifted, and prosecutors began investigating his affairs.
He was convicted of having lied to a parliamentary commission of inquiry in 2020, but he appealed the verdict. In 2025 he was acquitted, and the case is now closed.
After leaving the parliament in Vienna, Kurz began working in 2022 for the American IT billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel is close to both U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. Dream Security followed the year after.
Privately, Kurz has been in a relationship with Susanne Thier since his teenage years. The couple has two sons.
