Peter Thiel

For the German Olympic skier, see Peter Thiel (cross-country skier). For the Danish philosopher, author and publisher, see Peter Thielst.

Peter Thiel
Thiel in 2022
Born
Peter Andreas Thiel

(1967-10-11) 11 October 1967 (age 57)
Frankfurt, West Germany
Citizenship
  • United States
  • New Zealand
EducationStanford University (BA, JD)
Occupations
Title
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Matt Danzeisen
​
(m. 2017)​

Peter Andreas Thiel (/tiːl/; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist.[1][2][3] A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook.[4][5] As of July 2024, Thiel had an estimated net worth of US$11.2 billion and was ranked 212th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[6]

Thiel has worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, a speechwriter for former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett, and a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996 and co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998. He was chief executive officer of PayPal until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

Following PayPal, Thiel founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco.[7] In 2003, he launched Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, and has been its chairman since its inception. In 2005, Thiel launched Founders Fund with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Thiel became Facebook's first outside investor when he acquired a 10.2% stake in the company for $500,000 in August 2004. He sold the majority of his shares in Facebook for over $1 billion in 2012, but remains on the board of directors.[8] He co-founded Valar Ventures in 2010, co-founded Mithril Capital, was investment committee chair, in 2012, and was a part-time partner at Y Combinator from 2015 to 2017.[9][10][11][12]

Thiel is a conservative libertarian who has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes. He was controversially granted New Zealand citizenship in 2011 after the Fifth National Government intervened on his behalf. Thiel had spent 12 non-consecutive days in the country, a fraction of the normal residency requirement of 1,350 days for citizenship.

Through the Thiel Foundation, Thiel governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship, which fund non-profit research into artificial intelligence, life extension, and seasteading. In 2016, Thiel confirmed that he had funded Hulk Hogan in the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit because Gawker had previously outed Thiel as gay. The lawsuit eventually bankrupted Gawker,[13] and led to founder Nick Denton's bankruptcy.[14]

  1. ^ Wiener, Anna (27 October 2021). "What Is It About Peter Thiel?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 25 December 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  2. ^ Heffernan, Virginia (21 September 2021). "The Alarming Rise of Peter Thiel, Tech Mogul and Political Provocateur". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 6 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  3. ^ Purdy, Jedediah (30 November 2016). "The Anti-Democratic Worldview of Steve Bannon and Peter Thiel". Politico Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  4. ^ Ciralsky, Adam (20 September 2017). "Is Trump Mulling Peter Thiel for a Top Intelligence Advisory Post?". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Peter Thiel". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 31 December 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  7. ^ Mann, Jyoti. "Peter Thiel paid staff an extra $1,000 a month if they lived close to the office so they were more likely to work late, book says". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  8. ^ Feiner, Lauren (17 December 2019). "Peter Thiel reportedly pushed Facebook not to vet fake political ads". CNBC. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  9. ^ "Y Combinator Cuts Ties With Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program". BuzzFeed News. 17 November 2017. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  10. ^ "The PayPal Mafia: Who are they and where are Silicon Valley's richest group of men now?". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  11. ^ Waters, Richard (20 December 2013). "Lunch with the FT: Peter Thiel". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  12. ^ Hook, Leslie (11 November 2016). "Tech elite discovers it may need Peter Thiel". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  13. ^ Drange, Matt. "Peter Thiel's War On Gawker: A Timeline". Forbes. Archived from the original on 3 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  14. ^ Sterne, Peter (1 August 2016). "Gawker founder Nick Denton files for bankruptcy". Politico. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2022.