American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (born 1967)
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 56)
Frankfurt, West Germany
Citizenship
United States
New Zealand
Education
Stanford University (BA, JD)
Title
President of Clarium Capital
Chairman of Palantir
Partner in Founders Fund
Chairman of Valar Ventures
Chair of Mithril Capital
Political party
Republican
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 June 2023[update], Thiel had an estimated net worth of $9.7 billion and was ranked 213th 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 served as 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, serving as investment committee chair, in 2012; and served as 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]
^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.
^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.
^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.
^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.
^Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Peter Thiel". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 31 December 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
^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.
^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.
^"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.
^"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.
^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.
^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.
^Drange, Matt. "Peter Thiel's War On Gawker: A Timeline". Forbes. Archived from the original on 3 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
^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.
Peter Andreas Thiel (/tiːl/; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir...
The Thiel Fellowship (originally named 20 under 20) is a fellowship created by billionaire PeterThiel through the Thiel Foundation. The fellowship is...
Thiel Foundation is a private foundation created and funded by billionaire PeterThiel, co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. Thiel...
a protégé of businessman PeterThiel, Masters co-wrote Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future with Thiel in 2014, based on notes Masters...
data analytics. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded by PeterThiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp in 2003...
gym were obviously using steroids. He was, together with billionaire PeterThiel, involved in the 2013 Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit, which led to Gawker filing...
Thomas outed Silicon Valley billionaire businessman PeterThiel as gay in a post entitled "PeterThiel is totally gay, people." In the comment section of...
Individuals whom the media refers to as members of the PayPal Mafia include: PeterThiel, PayPal founder and former chief executive officer who is sometimes referred...
privacy. Hogan received financial support from billionaire investor PeterThiel, who had been outed by Gawker against his wishes. On June 10, 2016, Gawker...
Technologies, Anduril Industries and SpaceX. The firm was organized by PeterThiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek in early 2005 and raised its first fund of...
MACH Alliance. The company was originally established by Max Levchin, PeterThiel, and Luke Nosek in December 1998 as Fieldlink, later renamed Confinity...
Labs was a grant-making program of the Thiel Foundation (a philanthropic organization created by PeterThiel) from 2011 until 2021. Breakout Labs issued...
later joined the five-month-old company as its president. According to PeterThiel, Parker was the first to see potential in the company to be "really big"...
received a grant of $100,000 as part of the Thiel Fellowship, a two-year program from PayPal co-founder PeterThiel. In 2019, OYO had over 17,000 employees...
Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley, J. D. Vance, Giorgia Meloni, Marco Rubio, PeterThiel, Kevin Roberts, the British MP Daniel Kawczynski, Florida Governor Ron...
venture capital fund founded by Andrew McCormack, James Fitzgerald and PeterThiel in 2010. Historically, the majority of the firm's investments have been...
the creator of PayPal. It was founded in December 1998 by Max Levchin, PeterThiel, and Luke Nosek, initially as a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography...
slowing growth as a reason for the decision. Brex Inc. is backed by PeterThiel, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, DST Global, Kleiner Perkins, Lone Pine...
affected the probability of success. In Silicon Valley, a number of people (PeterThiel, Alistair Davidson, Mac Levchin, Nicholas G. Carr, Vinod Khosla) have...
in 2005: "This Is Water" Conan O'Brien at Dartmouth College in 2011 PeterThiel, Hamilton College in 2016 Donald Trump, Liberty University in 2017 Hillary...