Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel
Thiel in 2022
Peter Thiel
Born	Peter Andreas Thiel 11 10, 1967
Birthplace	Frankfurt, West Germany
Nationality	German, American, New Zealander
Occupation	Template:Plainlist
Known for	Co-founding PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund; first outside investor in Facebook
Education	Stanford University (BA, JD)
Awards	Template:Plainlist
Website	[[thielfoundation.org thielfoundation.org] Official site]

Peter Andreas Thiel (born 11 October 1967) is a German-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author, and political figure who has shaped the trajectory of Silicon Valley through a series of influential technology companies and investment vehicles. Born in Frankfurt, West Germany, and raised in the United States, Thiel co-founded PayPal in 1998 alongside Max Levchin and Luke Nosek, serving as its chief executive officer until the company's acquisition by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. He subsequently co-founded Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, in 2003, and has served as its chairman since inception. In 2004, Thiel became the first outside investor in Facebook, acquiring a 10.2% stake for $500,000 — an investment that would become one of the most profitable venture bets in the history of technology. He went on to establish Founders Fund in 2005 with former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Beyond his business activities, Thiel has been a prominent political donor to Republican causes and candidates, and through the Thiel Foundation, he has funded initiatives including the Thiel Fellowship and Breakout Labs. His political philosophy, which blends libertarian principles with skepticism toward conventional democratic institutions, has generated both admiration and controversy.

Early Life

Peter Andreas Thiel was born on 11 October 1967 in Frankfurt, West Germany. His family emigrated to the United States when he was approximately one year old. In 1971, the Thiel family relocated to South Africa and subsequently to South West Africa (present-day Namibia), where Thiel spent part of his childhood. The family returned to the United States in 1977 and settled in California.

Thiel's early life was shaped by a series of international relocations that exposed him to different political systems and cultures. He developed an interest in mathematics, science, and chess at a young age. By his own account, these formative experiences contributed to his later intellectual preoccupations with competition, monopoly, and political systems.

Growing up in California, Thiel attended school in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he emerged as a high-performing student. His early intellectual interests included science fiction and philosophy, subjects that would later inform his thinking on technology and the future of human civilization.

Education

Thiel attended Stanford University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He subsequently enrolled at Stanford Law School, earning a Juris Doctor degree. His time at Stanford was formative both intellectually and professionally: it was during this period that Thiel developed many of the philosophical and political views that would later define his public persona. At Stanford, he co-founded The Stanford Review, a conservative and libertarian student newspaper, which served as an early platform for his political and cultural commentary.

In a 2009 essay published in Cato Unbound, Thiel reflected on his intellectual development, writing: "I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual." This essay would become one of the most cited articulations of his libertarian worldview.

Thiel's views on higher education have themselves become a subject of public debate. He has expressed skepticism about the value of conventional college degrees, arguing that higher education has become overpriced and that talented young people may be better served by pursuing entrepreneurship directly. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein publicly disputed this position in February 2026, stating that attending college makes one a "complete person."

Career

Early Career and Thiel Capital Management

After graduating from Stanford Law School, Thiel pursued a varied early career. He worked as a law clerk, a securities lawyer, and a speechwriter before transitioning into finance as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. In 1996, Thiel founded Thiel Capital Management, a fund that would serve as the precursor to his later and more prominent investment vehicles.

PayPal

In 1998, Thiel co-founded PayPal alongside Max Levchin and Luke Nosek. The company, originally conceived as a digital payment and cryptography platform, became one of the defining companies of the early internet era. Thiel served as the chief executive officer of PayPal during a period of rapid growth, navigating challenges including fraud, competition, and the broader collapse of the dot-com bubble.

PayPal went public in February 2002 and was subsequently acquired by eBay in October of the same year for approximately $1.5 billion. The sale generated substantial returns for Thiel and other early executives. The group of former PayPal employees and founders who went on to create or fund a series of prominent technology companies — including Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, and others — became collectively known as the "PayPal Mafia," with Thiel often characterized as the group's de facto leader.

Clarium Capital

Following the sale of PayPal, Thiel founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. Clarium pursued a strategy centered on macroeconomic analysis and global trends, making large directional bets on currencies, commodities, and interest rates. The fund experienced periods of both significant gains and losses during its operation.

Palantir Technologies

In 2003, Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies, a software company specializing in big data analytics. Named after the seeing stones in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Palantir developed platforms designed for integration and analysis of large datasets, with applications in intelligence, defense, law enforcement, and commercial sectors. Thiel has served as chairman of the company's board since its founding.

Palantir became one of the most prominent technology companies to emerge from the post-9/11 national security landscape, securing contracts with agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Defense. The company went public in September 2020 via a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

In February 2026, Palantir filed a lawsuit against the Swiss magazine Republik over its reporting that Switzerland had rejected the company's approaches. The Financial Times reported that Palantir alleged the magazine did not provide sufficient right of reply before publication.

Facebook Investment

In August 2004, Thiel became the first outside investor in Facebook (now Meta Platforms), acquiring a 10.2% stake in the then-fledgling social networking company for $500,000. This investment proved extraordinarily lucrative. As Facebook grew into one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization, Thiel's stake appreciated dramatically. He began selling his Facebook shares in subsequent years; by August 2012, he had sold the majority of his holdings in the company.

Founders Fund

In 2005, Thiel launched Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, with PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. The firm's investment philosophy emphasized backing transformative technologies and "big ideas" rather than incremental improvements. Founders Fund invested in a range of technology companies, including SpaceX, Airbnb, Spotify, and Lyft, among others.

Other Investment Vehicles

Thiel's investment activities extended across multiple entities. In 2010, he co-founded Valar Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on international technology companies. Thiel also invested in the New Zealand-based accounting software firm Xero. In 2011, he founded Thiel Capital, and in 2012, he co-founded Mithril Capital, a growth-stage investment fund. He also served as investment committee chair and as a part-time partner at Y Combinator from 2015 to 2017.

In February 2026, Yahoo Finance reported that Thiel had fully exited his stake in ETHZilla (NASDAQ: ETZH), an Ethereum-focused treasury firm, marking a notable move in his cryptocurrency investment portfolio.

Authorship

Thiel is the author of Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (2014), co-written with Blake Masters. The book, based on notes from a course Thiel taught at Stanford University on entrepreneurship, articulates his views on competition, monopoly, and innovation. It became a bestseller and has been translated into numerous languages. Thiel has also authored The Diversity Myth (1995), co-written with David O. Sacks, which critiqued multiculturalism at Stanford University.

Political Activities and Views

Libertarian Philosophy

Thiel has described his political philosophy in broadly libertarian terms, emphasizing individual freedom, skepticism of government regulation, and opposition to what he characterizes as confiscatory taxation. In his 2009 Cato Unbound essay "The Education of a Libertarian," Thiel laid out a philosophical framework that combined free-market economics with a critique of modern democratic politics, suggesting that the expansion of the welfare state and the extension of suffrage had rendered libertarian politics increasingly difficult to achieve through conventional democratic means.

This essay attracted both praise from libertarian commentators and criticism from those who interpreted his remarks as expressing skepticism about democracy itself. Thiel has been variously described as a conservative libertarian and as a democracy-skeptic authoritarian by different observers.

Political Donations

Thiel has been a significant donor to Republican and conservative political causes. He donated $1 million to the Club for Growth super PAC, according to reporting by Bloomberg. He has funded a range of conservative candidates and organizations over the course of his political involvement.

In February 2026, it was reported that Thiel had backed the congressional bid of Jace Yarbrough, a Republican candidate for Texas's 32nd Congressional District who had described himself in self-deprecating terms as "Nazi-ish." The endorsement drew criticism from commentators and advocacy organizations.

Senator Bernie Sanders cited Thiel, along with Elon Musk and Bill Ackman, in February 2026 in advocating for billionaires to pay what Sanders termed their "fair share" of taxes, using California's proposed wealth tax as a platform for the argument.

Gawker Lawsuit

In 2016, Thiel confirmed that he had secretly funded the legal costs of former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) in his lawsuit against the media company Gawker (Bollea v. Gawker). The lawsuit, which centered on Gawker's publication of a sex tape involving Hogan, resulted in a $140 million jury verdict against Gawker and ultimately led to the company's bankruptcy. Thiel's involvement was motivated in part by Gawker's earlier publication of an article that outed him as gay. The case raised broader questions about the role of wealthy individuals in funding litigation against media organizations and the implications for freedom of the press.

Seasteading and Alternative Governance

Thiel's interest in alternative forms of governance led him to provide early funding for the Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to exploring the creation of autonomous floating communities in international waters. The concept reflects Thiel's broader interest in creating new political and social structures outside the constraints of existing nation-states.

Minnesota Marriage Amendment

Thiel was among the donors involved in the debate surrounding the Minnesota marriage amendment in 2012, as documented in campaign finance records.

Thiel Foundation and Philanthropy

Through the Thiel Foundation, Thiel has directed funding toward several initiatives reflecting his intellectual and philosophical interests.

Thiel Fellowship

In 2010, Thiel established the Thiel Fellowship (initially called "20 Under 20"), a program offering $100,000 grants to individuals under the age of 20 to pursue entrepreneurial projects instead of attending college. The program was conceived as a challenge to the conventional wisdom that a university degree is a prerequisite for professional success. It drew both praise for encouraging innovation and criticism from those who viewed it as undermining the value of higher education. The fellowship has produced a number of notable alumni who went on to found technology companies.

Breakout Labs

Breakout Labs, a grant-making program of the Thiel Foundation, provides funding for early-stage science and technology companies working on transformative research. The program was created to bridge the gap between academic research and commercialization, providing financial support to ventures that might be too risky for traditional venture capital but too applied for academic grants. Breakout Labs announced its first cohort of grantees shortly after its founding.

Longevity Research

Thiel has been a supporter of research into life extension and anti-aging science. He has contributed to the Methuselah Foundation's Mprize, which awards prizes for breakthroughs in extending the lifespan of laboratory mice as a step toward extending human longevity.

Press Freedom

Thiel has been listed as a supporter of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Personal Life

Thiel is openly gay; he was outed by the media company Gawker in a 2007 article, an event that contributed to his subsequent financing of the lawsuit that ultimately led to Gawker's bankruptcy. Thiel has spoken publicly about being gay while also holding conservative and libertarian political views, a combination that has placed him in an unusual position relative to both the LGBT community and the broader conservative movement.

In 2011, Thiel was granted New Zealand citizenship, a development that later became controversial within New Zealand. He holds citizenship in Germany, the United States, and New Zealand.

Regarding the use of technology by children, Thiel has been reported among a group of technology billionaires who impose strict screen time limits on their own children, despite having built or invested in companies that produce the products in question.

Controversies

Jeffrey Epstein Connections

In early 2026, the House Oversight Committee released emails related to the activities of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The released documents revealed that Thiel's investment firm Valar Ventures had accepted $40 million in investment from Epstein. The emails further showed that Thiel corresponded with Epstein over a five-year period prior to Epstein's death in 2019, with the correspondence including discussion of Brexit. The revelations attracted significant media attention and public scrutiny.

Recognition

Thiel has been the subject of extensive media coverage and intellectual commentary throughout his career. He has been described by some commentators as "perhaps America's leading public intellectual today" and as an "intellectual architect of Silicon Valley's contemporary ethos." Others have debated the consistency and moral implications of his views, particularly regarding his combination of libertarian economics, skepticism toward democracy, and support for particular political candidates.

His book Zero to One became a standard text in entrepreneurship courses at universities around the world. The Thiel Fellowship has become one of the most recognized alternative-to-college programs globally.

Thiel's investments, particularly his early stake in Facebook and the founding of PayPal and Palantir, have positioned him as one of the most consequential figures in the development of the modern technology industry. His role in financing the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit has been studied in law schools as a case study in the intersection of wealth, litigation, and press freedom.

References

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