Thiel put a couple of million in some edgy stuff with little to show for. It is nothing compared to the order of magnitude that Gates invested in malaria.
Well yeah, that's my point. He's the exact opposite of the scenario you suggest, someone who's so committed to promoting the idea of life extension he'll chuck a couple of million at woo merchants in the space purely for signalling purposes, someone who go on podcasts talking about the compatibility of "ending death" with Christianity and has a personal life extension regime, but when it comes down to actually putting significant capital down towards near term life extension, he doesn't see the opportunity. It's not because he doesn't want to look edgy, it's because he doesn't believe what he's being pitched is going to deliver on useful timelines.