Peter Thiel

Extracted Attributes

• Education

  Stanford University

• Occupation

  Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Political Activist, Securities Lawyer, Speechwriter, Derivatives Trader, Author

• Citizenship

  United States, New Zealand (granted 2011)

• Nationality

  German-American

• Notable Book

  Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

• Date of Birth

  1967-10-11

• Place of Birth

  Frankfurt, Germany

• Political Stance

  Conservative libertarian

• Estimated Net Worth

  US$20.8 billion (as of May 2025)

Timeline

• Born in Frankfurt, Germany. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, Wikidata)

  1967-10-11

• Founded Thiel Capital Management. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  1996-XX-XX

• Co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek, serving as CEO. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia, Web Search)

  1998-12-XX

• PayPal was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion; Thiel stepped down as CEO. Founded Clarium Capital. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia, Web Search)

  2002-XX-XX

• Launched Palantir Technologies and became its chairman. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2003-XX-XX

• Became Facebook's first outside investor, acquiring a 10.2% stake for $500,000. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2004-08-XX

• Taught a class titled 'Globalization, Sovereignty & the Law' at Stanford Law School (until December 2004). (Source: Web Search)

  2004-09-XX

• Co-founded Founders Fund with Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2005-XX-XX

• Co-founded Valar Ventures. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2010-XX-XX

• Controversially granted New Zealand citizenship. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2011-XX-XX

• Sold the majority of his shares in Facebook for over $1 billion. Co-founded Mithril Capital. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2012-XX-XX

• Served as a part-time partner at Y Combinator (until 2017). (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2015-XX-XX

• Confirmed funding Hulk Hogan in the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit, which led to Gawker's bankruptcy. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  2016-XX-XX

• Stepped down from the board of directors of Facebook. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia)

  2022-XX-XX

Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel ( ; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According to Forbes, as of May 2025, Thiel's estimated net worth stood at US$20.8 billion, making him the 103rd-richest individual in the world. After graduating from Stanford, Thiel began his career as a clerk for Judge James Larry Edmondson, 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 the 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. 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, and stepped down from the board of directors in 2022. 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. A conservative libertarian, Thiel 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, and led to founder Nick Denton's bankruptcy.

Web Search Results

• Peter Thiel | EBSCO Research Starters

  Peter Thiel is an investor, hedge-fund manager, and entrepreneur who cofounded PayPal with Max Levchin . He was the first outside investor in Facebook and has a lengthy record of supporting successful internet innovators. In 2004, he cofounded the software and services company Palantir Technologies.

• Peter Thiel - Wikipedia

  Peter Andreas Thiel (/tiːl/ ⓘ; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist.[\[1\]]( A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook.[\[4\]]( According to _Forbes_, as of 28 April 2025, Thiel's estimated net worth stood at US$19.1 billion, making him the 102nd-richest individual in the world.[\[6\]]( [...] 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. [...] Thiel has worked as a securities "Security (finance)") lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, a speechwriter for former U.S. secretary of education William Bennett, and a derivatives "Derivative (finance)") 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 the chief executive officer of PayPal until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

• Peter Thiel - Founders Fund

  Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He cofounded PayPal, led it as CEO, and took it public; he made the first outside investment in Facebook; and he cofounded Palantir Technologies, where he serves as chairman. He has provided early funding for LinkedIn, Yelp, and dozens of startups, many run by former colleagues who have been dubbed the “PayPal Mafia.” He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies including SpaceX and Airbnb. He [...] started the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young entrepreneurs, and he leads the Thiel Foundation, which works to advance technological progress and long-term thinking. He is also the #1 New York Times bestselling author of _Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future_. [...] []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( Close #### Partner ### Peter Thiel

• The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power

  A New York Times Notable Book A biography of venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the enigmatic, controversial, and hugely influential power broker who sits at the dynamic intersection of tech, business, and politics [...] In certain circles, Thiel’s name itself is a verb. To “Peter Thiel” a media outlet or a journalist is to bankrupt them, à la Gawker. The suit, which led to a $140 million verdict against a media company that had published a series of unflattering posts that suggested that Thiel was a “so-called visionary” and disclosed that he is gay, sent an unmistakable message to critics: those who publicly criticize Thiel, or any of his friends, do so at their peril. [...] As impressive as this entrepreneurial resume might be, Thiel has been even more influential as an investor and backroom deal maker. He leads the so-called PayPal Mafia, an informal network of interlocking financial and personal relationships that dates back to the late 1990s. This group includes Elon Musk, plus the founders of YouTube, Yelp, and LinkedIn. They would provide the capital to Airbnb, Lyft, Spotify, Stripe, DeepMind—now better known as Google’s world-leading artificial intelligence

• Peter Thiel - The Founders Fund - LinkedIn

  ## Experience ### Managing Partner The Founders Fund Mar 2006 - Present N/A Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek - cofounders of PayPal - provide venture capital seed money plus vision strategy, product marketing, and guidance drawn from our diverse background to serious entrepreneurs with big ideas. The Founders Fund provides venture capital from the entrepreneurs who made PayPal successful – it specializes in very early stage opportunities. [...] ### Investor LinkedIn Sep 2003 - Present N/A Linkedin is the leading business network site for all professionals from 25-65. It provides essential tools for recruiting, finding experts, hiring consults, finding clients, and keeping in touch with colleagues and friends. ### Founder and President Clarium Capital Management, LLC Oct 2002 - Present N/A -MarHedge Global Macro Fund of the Year (2005) -Absolute Return Global Macro Fund of the Year (2005) Please see our website: [...] ### Visitor Stanford Law School Sep 2004 - Dec 2004 N/A Taught a class entitled: “Globalization, Sovereignty & the Law” from 9/2004 to 12/2004 ### CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder PayPal Dec 1998 - Oct 2002 N/A Co-founded and built largest payments service for individuals and merchants. Enabled entirely new systems of electronic payments for individuals and small businesses. Served over 20 million customers with billions in transactions.

• Image

  

• Gender

  male

• Educated At

  Stanford University

• Instance Of

  Q5

• Occupation

  writer

• Citizenship

  United States

• Date Of Birth

  10/11/1967

• Notable Work

  The Stanford Review

• Place Of Birth

  Frankfurt

Peter Andreas Thiel (/tiːl/; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of May 2022, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $7.19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, as a speechwriter for former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996. He co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998, serving as chief executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. After PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. In 2003, he launched Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, serving as its chairman since its inception. In 2005, he launched Founders Fund with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Earlier, Thiel became Facebook's first outside investor when he acquired a 10.2% stake 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. 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. Through the Thiel Foundation, Thiel governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship, and funds nonprofit 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 him as gay. The lawsuit eventually bankrupted Gawker and led to founder Nick Denton declaring bankruptcy. Thiel is a conservative libertarian who has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes.