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Wikipedia

Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel (/tl/; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist.[1][2][3][4] A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook.[5][6] As of May 2022, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $7.19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[7]

Peter Thiel
Thiel in 2022
Born
Peter Andreas Thiel

(1967-10-11) 11 October 1967 (age 55)
Citizenship
  • Germany (1967–present)
  • United States (1978–present)
  • New Zealand (2011–present)
EducationStanford University (BA, JD)
Title
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Matt Danzeisen
(m. 2017)

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.[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]

Through the Thiel Foundation, Thiel governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship, and funds 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 declaring bankruptcy.[14] Thiel is a conservative libertarian who has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes.

Early life and education

Thiel was born in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, on 11 October 1967, to Klaus Friedrich Thiel and his wife Susanne Thiel.[15][16] The family migrated to the United States when Peter was one year old and lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father worked as a chemical engineer. Klaus then worked for various mining companies, creating an itinerant upbringing for Thiel and his younger brother, Patrick Michael Thiel.[17][18] Thiel's mother became a U.S. citizen, but his father did not.[16]

Before settling in Foster City, California, in 1977, the Thiels lived in South Africa and South West Africa (modern-day Namibia). Peter changed elementary schools seven times. He attended a strict establishment in Swakopmund that required students to wear uniforms and utilized corporal punishment, such as striking students' hands with a ruler. This experience instilled a distaste for uniformity and regimentation later reflected in his support for individualism and libertarianism.[19][20]

Thiel played Dungeons & Dragons, was an avid reader of science fiction, with Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein among his favorite authors, and a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien's works, stating as an adult that he had read The Lord of the Rings over ten times.[21] Six firms (Palantir Technologies, Valar Ventures, Mithril Capital, Lembas LLC, Rivendell LLC and Arda Capital) that he founded adopted names originating from Tolkien.[22]

Thiel excelled in mathematics and scored first in a California-wide mathematics competition while attending Bowditch Middle School in Foster City.[23] At San Mateo High School, he read Ayn Rand, admired the optimism and anti-communism of then-President Ronald Reagan, and became valedictorian of his graduating class in 1985.[23][24]

He studied philosophy at Stanford University. During that time, debates on identity politics and political correctness were ongoing. A "Western Culture" program, which was criticized by The Rainbow Agenda because of a perceived over-representation of the achievements of European men, was replaced with a "Culture, Ideas and Values" course, which instead pushed diversity and multiculturalism. This replacement provoked controversy on the campus and led to Thiel co-founding The Stanford Review, a conservative and libertarian newspaper, in 1987 with funding from Irving Kristol.[25] Thiel served as The Stanford Review's first editor-in-chief and remained in that post until completing his Bachelor of Arts in 1989.[26] Over the years, Thiel has continued that relationship, consulting with the top editorial staff several times a year, hosting events at his house, donating to the newspaper and placing graduating students in internships or jobs within his network.[27]

Thiel enrolled in Stanford Law School and earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1992.[28]

While at Stanford, Thiel met René Girard, whose mimetic theory influenced him.[29] Mimetic theory posits that human behavior is based upon mimesis, and that imitation can engender pointless conflict. Girard notes the productive potential of competition: "It is because of this unprecedented capacity to promote competition within limits that always remain socially, if not individually, acceptable that we have all the amazing achievements of the modern world," but states that competition stifles progress once it becomes an end in itself: "rivals are more apt to forget about whatever objects are the cause of the rivalry and instead become more fascinated with one another."[30] Thiel applied this theory to his personal life and business ventures, stating: "The big problem with competition is that it focuses us on the people around us, and while we get better at the things we're competing on, we lose sight of anything that's important, or transcendent, or truly meaningful in our world."[31][32]

Career

Early career

After graduating from Stanford Law School, Thiel clerked for Judge James Larry Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.[33] Thiel then worked as a securities lawyer for Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. He left the law firm after seven months and three days, citing a lack of transcendental value in his work.[34] He then took a job as a derivatives trader in currency options at Credit Suisse. He joined them in 1993 while also working as a speechwriter for former United States Secretary of Education William Bennett, before returning to California in 1996 to seek a more meaningful occupation.[35]

Upon returning to the Bay Area, Thiel noticed that the development of the internet and personal computer had launched the dot-com boom. With financial support from friends and family, he raised $1 million toward the establishment of Thiel Capital Management and embarked on his venture capital career.[36] Early on, he experienced a setback after investing $100,000 in his friend Luke Nosek's unsuccessful web-based calendar project. His luck changed when Nosek's friend Max Levchin introduced him to his cryptography-related company idea, which later became their first venture called Confinity in 1998.[citation needed]

PayPal

With Confinity, Thiel realized they could develop software to bridge a gap in making online payments. Although the use of credit cards and expanding automated teller machine networks provided consumers with more payment options, not all merchants had the necessary hardware to accept credit cards. Thus, consumers had to pay with exact cash or check. Thiel wanted to create a type of digital wallet for consumer convenience and security by encrypting data on digital devices, and in 1999 Confinity launched PayPal.[37]

PayPal promised to open up new possibilities for handling money. Thiel viewed PayPal's mission as liberating people from the erosion of the value of their currencies due to inflation. Thiel spoke in 1999:

We're definitely onto something big. The need PayPal answers is monumental. Everyone in the world needs money—to get paid, to trade, to live. Paper money is an ancient technology and an inconvenient means of payment. You can run out of it. It wears out. It can get lost or stolen. In the twenty-first century, people need a form of money that's more convenient and secure, something that can be accessed from anywhere with a PDA or an Internet connection. Of course, what we're calling 'convenient' for American users will be revolutionary for the developing world. Many of these countries' governments play fast and loose with their currencies. They use inflation and sometimes wholesale currency devaluations, like we saw in Russia and several Southeast Asian countries last year [referring to the 1998 Russian and 1997 Asian financial crisis], to take wealth away from their citizens. Most of the ordinary people there never have an opportunity to open an offshore account or to get their hands on more than a few bills of a stable currency like U.S. dollars. Eventually PayPal will be able to change this. In the future, when we make our service available outside the U.S. and as Internet penetration continues to expand to all economic tiers of people, PayPal will give citizens worldwide more direct control over their currencies than they ever had before. It will be nearly impossible for corrupt governments to steal wealth from their people through their old means because if they try the people will switch to dollars or Pounds or Yen, in effect dumping the worthless local currency for something more secure.[38]

When PayPal launched at a press conference in 1999, representatives from Nokia and Deutsche Bank sent $3 million in venture funding to Thiel using PayPal on their PalmPilots. PayPal then continued to grow through mergers in 2000 with Elon Musk's online financial services company X.com, and with Pixo, a company specializing in mobile commerce. These mergers allowed PayPal to expand into the wireless phone market, and transformed it into a safer and more user-friendly tool by enabling users to transfer money via a free online registration and email rather than by exchanging bank account information.

PayPal went public on 15 February 2002 and was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in October of that year.[39] Thiel remained CEO of the company until the sale.[6] His 3.7% stake in the company was worth $55 million at the time of acquisition.[40] In Silicon Valley circles, Thiel is colloquially referred to as the "Don of the PayPal Mafia".[41]

Clarium Capital

Thiel used $10 million of his proceeds to create Clarium Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund focusing on directional and liquid instruments in currencies, interest rates, commodities, and equities.[42] Thiel stated that "the big, macroeconomic idea that we had at Clarium—the idée fixe—was the peak-oil theory, which was basically that the world was running out of oil, and that there were no easy alternatives."[23]

In 2003, Thiel successfully bet that the United States dollar would weaken.[43] In 2004, Thiel spoke of the dot-com bubble having migrated, in effect, into a growing bubble in the financial sector, and specified General Electric and Walmart as vulnerable. In 2005, Clarium saw a 57.1% return[44] as Thiel predicted that the dollar would rally.[43]

However, Clarium faltered in 2006 with a 7.8% loss.[citation needed] During this time, the firm sought to profit in the long-term from its petrodollar analysis, which foresaw the impending decline in oil supplies and the unsustainable bubble growing in the U.S. housing market.[citation needed] Clarium's assets under management grew after achieving a 40.3% return in 2007 to more than $7 billion by 2008, but fell as financial markets collapsed near the start of 2009.[citation needed] By 2011, after missing out on the economic rebound, many key investors pulled out, reducing the value of Clarium's assets to $350 million, two thirds of which was Thiel's money.[45]

Palantir

In May 2003, Thiel incorporated Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company named after the Tolkien artifact.[46] He continues to serve as its chairman as of 2022.[47][48] Thiel stated that the idea for the company was based on the realization that "the approaches that PayPal had used to fight fraud could be extended into other contexts, like fighting terrorism". He also stated that, after the September 11 attacks, the debate in the United States was "will we have more security with less privacy or less security with more privacy?". He envisioned Palantir as providing data mining services to government intelligence agencies that were maximally unintrusive and traceable.[49][50]

Palantir's first backer was the Central Intelligence Agency's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. The company steadily grew and in 2015 was valued at $20 billion, with Thiel being the company's largest shareholder.[51][52]

Facebook

In August 2004, Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment in Facebook for a 10.2% stake in the company and joined Facebook's board. This was the first outside investment in Facebook, and valued the company at $4.9 million.[53][54] As a board member, Thiel was not actively involved in Facebook's operations. He provided help with timing the various rounds of funding and Zuckerberg credited Thiel with helping him time Facebook's 2007 Series D, which closed before the 2008 financial crisis.[55]

In his book The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick outlines how Thiel came to make this investment: Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who at the time had assumed the title of "President" of Facebook, was seeking investors. Parker approached Reid Hoffman, the CEO of work-based social network LinkedIn. Hoffman liked Facebook but declined to become lead investor because of the potential for conflict of interest. Hoffman directed Parker to Thiel, whom he knew from their PayPal days. Thiel met Parker and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Thiel and Zuckerberg got along well and Thiel agreed to lead Facebook's seed round with $500,000 for 10.2% of the company. The investment was originally in the form of a convertible note, to be converted to equity if Facebook reached 1.5 million users by the end of 2004. Although Facebook narrowly missed the target, Thiel allowed the loan to be converted to equity anyway.[56] Thiel said of his investment:

I was comfortable with them pursuing their original vision. And it was a very reasonable valuation. I thought it was going to be a pretty safe investment.[56]

In September 2010, Thiel, while expressing skepticism about the potential for growth in the consumer Internet sector, argued that relative to other Internet companies, Facebook (which then had a secondary market valuation of $30 billion) was comparatively undervalued.[57]

Facebook's initial public offering was in May 2012, with a market cap of nearly $100 billion ($38 a share), at which time Thiel sold 16.8 million shares for $638 million.[58] In August 2012, immediately upon the conclusion of the early investor lock-up period, Thiel sold almost all of his remaining stake for between $19.27 and $20.69 per share, or $395.8 million, for a total of more than $1 billion.[59] He retained his seat on the board of directors.[60] In 2016, he sold a little under 1 million of his shares for around $100 million. In November 2017, he sold another 160,805 shares for $29 million, putting his holdings in Facebook at 59,913 Class A shares.[61] As of April 2020, he owned less than 10,000 shares in Facebook.[62]

On 7 February 2022, Thiel announced he would not stand for re-election to the board of Facebook owner Meta at the 2022 annual stockholders' meeting and will leave after serving 17 years in order to support pro Donald Trump candidates in the 2022 United States elections.[48][63]

Founders Fund

In 2005, Thiel created Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund.[64] Other partners in the fund include Sean Parker, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek.[65]

In addition to Facebook, Thiel made early-stage investments in numerous startups (personally or through Founders Fund), including Airbnb,[23] Slide.com,[66] LinkedIn,[23] Friendster,[67] RapLeaf, Geni.com, Yammer, Yelp Inc., Spotify,[23] Powerset, Practice Fusion, MetaMed, Vator, SpaceX,[23] Palantir Technologies, IronPort, Votizen, Asana, Big Think, CapLinked, Quora, Nanotronics Imaging, Rypple, TransferWise, Stripe, Block.one,[68] and AltSchool.[69]

In 2017, Founders Fund bought about $15–20 million worth of bitcoin. In January 2018, the firm told investors that due to the cryptocurrency's surge the holdings were worth hundreds of millions of dollars.[70]

Also in 2017, Thiel was one of the first outside investors in Clearview AI, a facial recognition technology startup that has raised concerns in the tech world and media for its risks of weaponization.[71][72]

Valar Ventures

Through Valar Ventures, an internationally focused venture firm he cofounded with Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald,[73] Thiel was an early investor in Xero, a software firm headquartered in New Zealand.[74] Valar Ventures also invested in New Zealand-based companies Pacific Fibre[75] and Booktrack.[76]

Mithril Capital

In June 2012, he launched Mithril Capital Management, named after the fictitious metal in The Lord of the Rings, with Jim O'Neill and Ajay Royan. Unlike Clarium Capital, Mithril Capital, a fund with $402 million at the time of launch, targets companies that are beyond the startup stage and ready to scale up.[77][78]

Y Combinator

In March 2015, Thiel joined Y Combinator as one of 10 part-time partners.[79] In November 2017, it was reported that Y Combinator had severed its ties with Thiel.[80]

Gawker lawsuit

In May 2016, Thiel confirmed in an interview with The New York Times that he had paid $10 million in legal expenses to finance several lawsuits brought by others, including a lawsuit by Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) against Gawker Media for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and infringement of personality rights after Gawker made sections of a sex tape involving Bollea public.[81] The jury awarded Bollea $140 million, and Gawker announced it was permanently closing due to the lawsuit in August 2016.[82] Thiel referred to his financial support of Bollea's case as one of the "greater philanthropic things that I've done."[83]

Thiel said he was motivated to sue Gawker after they published a 2007 article publicly outing him, headlined "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people." Thiel stated that Gawker articles about others, including his friends, had "ruined people's lives for no reason," and said, "It's less about revenge and more about specific deterrence."[83] In response to criticism that his funding of lawsuits against Gawker could restrict the freedom of the press, Thiel cited his donations to the Committee to Protect Journalists and stated, "I refuse to believe that journalism means massive privacy violations. I think much more highly of journalists than that. It's precisely because I respect journalists that I do not believe they are endangered by fighting back against Gawker."[83]

On 15 August 2016, Thiel published an opinion piece in The New York Times in which he argued that his defense of online privacy went beyond Gawker.[84] He highlighted his support for the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, and said that athletes and business executives have the right to stay in the closet as long as they want to.[84]

Political activities

Thiel is a self-described conservative libertarian,[85] though more recently he has espoused support for national conservatism,[86] and criticized economically liberal attitudes towards free trade[87] and big tech.[86] In 2019, Thiel called Google "seemingly treasonous" and urged a government investigation, citing Google's work with China and asking whether DeepMind or Google's senior management had been "infiltrated" by foreign intelligence agencies.[88]

Thiel is a member of the Steering Committee[89] of the Bilderberg Group, a private, annual gathering of intellectual figures, political leaders, and business executives.[90]

Support for political activism

Thiel, who is gay,[91][92] has supported mostly conservative gay rights causes such as the American Foundation for Equal Rights and GOProud.[93] He invited conservative columnist and friend Ann Coulter to Homocon 2010 as a guest speaker.[94] Coulter later dedicated her 2011 book, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America, to Thiel.[95] Thiel is mentioned in the acknowledgments of Coulter's ¡Adios, America!: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole.[96] In 2012, Thiel donated $10,000 to Minnesotans United for All Families, in order to fight Minnesota Amendment 1[97] that proposed to ban marriage between same-sex couples there.

In 2009, it was reported that Thiel helped fund college student James O'Keefe's "Taxpayers Clearing House" video—a satirical look at the Wall Street bailout.[98] O'Keefe went on to produce the ACORN undercover sting videos but, through a spokesperson, Thiel denied involvement in the ACORN sting.[98]

In July 2012, Thiel made a $1 million donation to the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative 501(c)(4) organization, becoming the group's largest contributor.[99] Club for Growth is a conservative organization with an agenda focused on cutting taxes and other economic issues.

Support for political candidates

Thiel is a member of the Republican Party.[100] He contributes to both Libertarian and Republican candidates and causes.

 

In December 2007, Thiel endorsed Ron Paul for President.[101] After Paul failed to secure the Republican nomination, Thiel contributed to the John McCain campaign.[102]

In 2010, Thiel supported Meg Whitman in her unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California. He contributed the maximum allowable $25,900 to the Whitman campaign.[103]

In 2012, Thiel, along with Nosek and Scott Banister, put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC. Collectively they gave $3.9 million to Endorse Liberty, whose purpose was to promote Ron Paul. As of 31 January 2012, Endorse Liberty reported spending about $3.3 million promoting Paul by setting up two YouTube channels, buying ads from Google, Facebook and StumbleUpon, and building a presence on the Web.[104] After Paul again failed to secure the nomination, Thiel contributed to the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan presidential ticket of 2012.[102]

Thiel initially supported Carly Fiorina's campaign during the 2016 GOP presidential primary elections.[105] After Fiorina dropped out, Thiel supported Donald Trump and became one of the California delegates for Trump's nomination. He was a headline speaker during the convention, during which he announced that he was "proud to be gay," for which the assembled Republicans cheered.[106][107] On 15 October 2016, Thiel announced a $1.25 million donation in support of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.[108] Thiel stated to The New York Times: "I didn't give him any money for a long time because I didn't think it mattered, and then the campaign asked me to."[109] After Trump's victory, Thiel was named to the executive committee of the President-elect's transition team.[110]

Thiel also has his own political-action committee, Free Forever, which is committed to supporting political candidates who support stricter border control, restrictive immigration policy, funds for veterans, and anti-interventionist foreign policy, among other things.[111][112]

By February 2022, Thiel was one of the largest donors to Republican candidates in the 2022 election campaign with more than $20.4 million in contributions. He supported 16 senatorial and congressional candidates, several of whom were proponents of the falsehood that there was significant voter fraud in the 2020 election. Two of said senatorial candidates (Blake Masters and J. D. Vance) were also tech investors who had previously worked for Thiel.[113]

Philanthropy

Thiel carries out most of his philanthropic activities through the Thiel Foundation.[114][115]

Research

Artificial intelligence

In 2006, Thiel provided $100,000 of matching funds to back the Singularity Challenge donation drive of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (now known as the Machine Intelligence Research Institute), a nonprofit organization that promotes the development of friendly artificial intelligence.[116] He provided half of the $400,000 matching funds for the 2007 donation drive, and as of 2013 the Thiel Foundation had donated over $1 million to the institute.[116] Additionally, he has spoken at multiple Singularity Summits.[117][118][119] At the 2009 Singularity Summit, he said his greatest concern is the technological singularity not arriving soon enough.[118]

In December 2015, OpenAI announced that Thiel was one of their financial backers, a nonprofit company aimed at the safe development of artificial general intelligence.[120]

Thiel also backed DeepMind, a UK start-up that was acquired by Google in early 2014 for £400 million.[121]

Life extension

In September 2006, Thiel announced that he would donate $3.5 million to foster anti-aging research through the non-profit Methuselah Mouse Prize foundation.[122][123] He gave the following reasons for his pledge: "Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century, including dramatically improved health and longevity for all. I'm backing Dr. [Aubrey] de Grey, because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process, allowing many people alive today to enjoy radically longer and healthier lives for themselves and their loved ones." As of February 2017, he had donated over $7 million to the foundation.[124]

When asked "What is the biggest achievement that you haven't achieved yet?" by the moderator of a discussion panel at the Venture Alpha West 2014 conference, Thiel said he wants to make progress on anti-aging research.[125] Thiel also said that he is registered to be cryonically preserved, meaning that he would be subject to low-temperature preservation in case of his legal death in hopes that he might be successfully revived by future medical technology, and is signed up with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.[21]

Seasteading

On 15 April 2008, Thiel pledged $500,000 to the newly created non-profit Seasteading Institute,[126] directed by Patri Friedman, whose mission is "to establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems."[127][128] At one of the institute's conferences, he described seasteading as "one of the few technological frontiers that has the promise to create a new space for human freedom."[129] In 2011, Thiel gave $1.25 million to the Seasteading Institute,[130][131] but resigned from its board the same year.[132] In a 2017 interview with The New York Times, Thiel said seasteads are "not quite feasible from an engineering perspective" and "still very far in the future".[133][134]

Thiel Fellowship

On 29 September 2010, Thiel created the Thiel Fellowship, which annually awards $100,000 to 20 people under the age of 23 in order to spur them to drop out of college and create their own ventures.[135][136][137] According to Thiel, for many young people, college is the path to take when they have no idea what to do with their lives:

I feel I was personally very guilty of this; you don't know what to do with your life, so you get a college degree; you don't know what you're going to do with your college degree, so you get a graduate degree. In my case, it was law school, which is the classic thing one does when one has no idea what else to do. I don't have any big regrets, but if I had to do it over I would try to think more about the future than I did at the time... You cannot get out of student debt even if you personally go bankrupt, it's a form of almost like indentured servitude, it's attached to your physical person for the rest of your life.[21]

Breakout Labs

In November 2011, the Thiel Foundation announced the creation of Breakout Labs, a grant-making program intended "to fill the funding gap that exists for innovative research outside the confines of an academic institution, large corporation, or government."[138][139] It offers grants of up to $350,000 to science-focused start-ups, "with no strings attached".[140][141] In April 2012, Breakout Labs announced its first set of grantees.[139][142] In total, 12 startups received funding, for a total of $4.5 million in grants.[140] One of the first ventures to receive funding from Breakout Labs was 3Scan, a tissue imaging platform.[141]

Other causes

The Thiel Foundation is a supporter of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which promotes the right of journalists to report the news freely without fear of reprisal.[143] Beginning in 2008, Thiel has donated over $1 million to the CPJ.[144] He is also a supporter of the Human Rights Foundation, which organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum.[145][146] In 2011 he was a featured speaker at the Oslo Freedom Forum, and the Thiel Foundation was one of the event's main sponsors.[146]

In 2011, Thiel made a NZ$1 million donation to an appeal fund for the casualties of the Christchurch earthquake.[147]

Personal life

Thiel married his long-time partner Matt Danzeisen in October 2017, in Vienna, Austria.[148] Danzeisen works as a portfolio manager at Thiel Capital.[149]

Religious views

Thiel is a self-described Christian and a promoter of René Girard's Christian anthropology.[150] He grew up in an evangelical household but, as of 2011, describes his religious beliefs as "somewhat heterodox", and stated: "I believe Christianity is true but I don't sort of feel a compelling need to convince other people of that."[45] Thiel has participated in Veritas Forum events with the noted theologian N. T. Wright discussing religion, politics, and technology.[151][152]

During his time at Stanford University, Thiel attended a lecture given by René Girard. Girard, a Catholic, explained the role of sacrifice and the scapegoat mechanism in resolving social conflict, which appealed to Thiel as it offered a basis for his Christian faith without the fundamentalism of his parents.[153]

Chess

Thiel began playing chess at the age of six,[23] and was at one time one of the strongest junior players in the United States.[154][155][156] He holds the title of Life Master,[157][158] but has not competed since 2003.[100] On 30 November 2016, Thiel made the ceremonial first move in the first tiebreak game of the World Chess Championship 2016 between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen.[155][159][160]

Media appearances

Thiel is an occasional commentator on CNBC, having appeared on both Closing Bell with Kelly Evans, and Squawk Box with Becky Quick.[161] He has been interviewed twice by Charlie Rose on PBS.[162] He has also contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, First Things, Forbes, and Policy Review, a journal formerly published by the Hoover Institution, on whose board he sits.

In The Social Network, Thiel was portrayed by Wallace Langham.[163] He described the film as "wrong on many levels".[164]

Thiel was the inspiration for the Peter Gregory character on HBO's Silicon Valley.[165] Thiel said of Gregory, "I liked him... I think eccentric is always better than evil".[166]

Jonas Lüscher stated in an interview with Basellandschaftliche Zeitung that he based the character Tobias Erkner in his novel Kraft ("Force") on Thiel.[167]

Right Time to Thiel by satirist Jan Böhmermann (2022) is a Bond theme-style song and music video.[168]

New Zealand citizenship

Thiel was a German citizen by birth, and became an American citizen by naturalization.[169] He had received permanent residency in New Zealand in 2007.[170][171] He had visited the country on four occasions prior to his application for citizenship,[172] and had spent 12 days in New Zealand, fewer than the typical residency requirement of 1350 days.[173] When he applied, he stated he had no intention of living in New Zealand, which is a criterion for citizenship.[174] Then-Minister of Internal Affairs Nathan Guy waived those normal requirements, under an "exceptional circumstances" clause of the Citizenships Act.[175][172][174]

He became a New Zealand citizen in 2011, which became public in 2017.[175] In 2015, he purchased a 193-hectare estate near Wānaka, which fitted the classification of "sensitive land" and required foreign buyers to obtain permission from New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office. Thiel did not require permission as he was a citizen.[176]

Thiel's application cited his contribution to the economy—he had founded a venture capital fund in Auckland before applying, and invested $7 million in two local companies—as well as a $1 million donation to the 2011 Christchurch earthquake appeal fund.[172] Rod Drury, founder of Xero, also provided a formal reference for Thiel's application.[175] Thiel's case was cited by critics as an example of how New Zealand passports can be bought,[172][177] something the New Zealand government denied.[172] At the time that his citizenship was revealed, The New Zealand Herald came out with the report that the New Zealand Defence Force, the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications and Security Bureau have long-standing links with Thiel's Palantir.[178]

Roth IRA

In 2021 it was revealed by ProPublica that Thiel had purchased 1.7 million founders shares in the entity that would become PayPal using $1,700 in a Roth IRA in 1999. Due to the rapid growth in the value of the shares as PayPal grew and was later acquired by eBay, it allowed Thiel to turn his $1700 Roth IRA into an account worth more than $5 billion as of 2019. Most of this increase in the value of the Roth was due to him re-investing his PayPal proceeds into companies like Palantir and Facebook which grew quickly after his investment. If Thiel waits until 2027, he can withdraw the entire $5 billion+ amount tax free.[179]

Awards and honors

Views

Politics

“The Straussian Moment,” an essay written by Thiel in 2004, is sometimes considered to be a fundamental text in his political thinking, and was the subject of a 2019 interview at the Hoover Institution. The essay draws on several thinkers and political theorists and argues that the September 11 attacks upset “the entire political and military framework of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,” and therefore “a reexamination of the foundations of modern politics” was needed.[1]

Thiel explained in a 2009 essay that he had come to "no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible", due in large part to welfare beneficiaries and women in general being "notoriously tough for libertarians" constituencies, and that he had focused efforts on new technologies (namely cyberspace, space colonization and seasteading) that could create "a new space for freedom" beyond current politics.[185] Said essay has been referenced by Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land, the main theorists of the neo-reactionary movement, in their writings.[186]

Innovation

In a 2015 conversation with Tyler Cowen, Thiel claimed that innovative breakthroughs were happening in computing/IT and not the physical world. He laments the lack of progress in space travel, high-speed transit, and medical devices. As a cause for the discrepancy he says: "I would say that we lived in a world in which bits were unregulated and atoms were regulated."[187]

Published books

The Diversity Myth

In 1995, the Independent Institute published The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, which Thiel co-authored along with fellow tech entrepreneur David O. Sacks, and with a foreword by the late Emory University historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese.[188] The book is critical of political correctness and multiculturalism in higher education and alleges that it has diluted academic rigor. Thiel and Sacks' writings drew criticism from then-Stanford Provost Condoleezza Rice and then-Stanford President Gerhard Casper in describing Thiel and Sacks' view of Stanford as "a cartoon, not a description of our freshman curriculum"[189] and their commentary as "demagoguery, pure and simple."[190]

In 2016, Thiel apologized for two statements he made in the book: 1) "The purpose of the rape crisis movement seems as much about vilifying men as about raising 'awareness'" and 2) "But since a multicultural rape charge may indicate nothing more than belated regret, a woman might 'realize' that she had been 'raped' the next day or even many days later." He stated: "More than two decades ago, I co-wrote a book with several insensitive, crudely argued statements. As I've said before, I wish I'd never written those things. I'm sorry for it. Rape in all forms is a crime. I regret writing passages that have been taken to suggest otherwise."[191]

Zero to One

In Spring 2012, Thiel taught CS 183: Startup at Stanford University.[192] Notes for the course, taken by student Blake Masters, led to a book titled Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Thiel and Masters, which was released in September 2014.[193][194][195] (Thiel would later go on to endorse Masters' campaign in the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona and spend more than $10 million in its support.[196])

Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic, stated Zero to One "might be the best business book I've read". He described it as a "self-help book for entrepreneurs, bursting with bromides" but also as a "lucid and profound articulation of capitalism and success in the 21st century economy."[197]

Tools of Titans

Thiel also has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' self-help book Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers.

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Bibliography

  • Packer, George (2013), The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 978-0374102418

Further reading

  • Chafkin, Max (2021). The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-1984878533

External links

peter, thiel, german, olympic, skier, cross, country, skier, danish, philosopher, author, publisher, peter, andreas, thiel, born, october, 1967, german, american, billionaire, entrepreneur, venture, capitalist, political, activist, founder, paypal, palantir, t. For the German Olympic skier see Peter Thiel cross country skier For the Danish philosopher author and publisher see Peter Thielst Peter Andreas Thiel t iː l born 11 October 1967 is a German American billionaire entrepreneur venture capitalist and political activist 1 2 3 4 A co founder of PayPal Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund he was the first outside investor in Facebook 5 6 As of May 2022 update Thiel had an estimated net worth of 7 19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index 7 Peter ThielThiel in 2022BornPeter Andreas Thiel 1967 10 11 11 October 1967 age 55 Frankfurt West GermanyCitizenshipGermany 1967 present United States 1978 present New Zealand 2011 present EducationStanford University BA JD TitlePresident of Clarium Capital Chairman of Palantir Partner in Founders Fund Chairman of Valar Ventures Chair of Mithril CapitalPolitical partyRepublicanSpouseMatt Danzeisen m 2017 wbr He worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan amp 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 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 Through the Thiel Foundation Thiel governs the grant making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship and funds 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 declaring bankruptcy 14 Thiel is a conservative libertarian who has made substantial donations to American right wing figures and causes Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 Early career 2 2 PayPal 2 3 Clarium Capital 2 4 Palantir 2 5 Facebook 2 6 Founders Fund 2 7 Valar Ventures 2 8 Mithril Capital 2 9 Y Combinator 3 Gawker lawsuit 4 Political activities 4 1 Support for political activism 4 2 Support for political candidates 5 Philanthropy 5 1 Research 5 1 1 Artificial intelligence 5 1 2 Life extension 5 1 3 Seasteading 5 2 Thiel Fellowship 5 3 Breakout Labs 5 4 Other causes 6 Personal life 6 1 Religious views 6 2 Chess 6 3 Media appearances 6 4 New Zealand citizenship 6 5 Roth IRA 6 6 Awards and honors 7 Views 7 1 Politics 7 2 Innovation 8 Published books 8 1 The Diversity Myth 8 2 Zero to One 8 3 Tools of Titans 9 References 9 1 Bibliography 10 Further reading 11 External linksEarly life and educationThiel was born in Frankfurt am Main West Germany on 11 October 1967 to Klaus Friedrich Thiel and his wife Susanne Thiel 15 16 The family migrated to the United States when Peter was one year old and lived in Cleveland Ohio where his father worked as a chemical engineer Klaus then worked for various mining companies creating an itinerant upbringing for Thiel and his younger brother Patrick Michael Thiel 17 18 Thiel s mother became a U S citizen but his father did not 16 Before settling in Foster City California in 1977 the Thiels lived in South Africa and South West Africa modern day Namibia Peter changed elementary schools seven times He attended a strict establishment in Swakopmund that required students to wear uniforms and utilized corporal punishment such as striking students hands with a ruler This experience instilled a distaste for uniformity and regimentation later reflected in his support for individualism and libertarianism 19 20 Thiel played Dungeons amp Dragons was an avid reader of science fiction with Isaac Asimov and Robert A Heinlein among his favorite authors and a fan of J R R Tolkien s works stating as an adult that he had read The Lord of the Rings over ten times 21 Six firms Palantir Technologies Valar Ventures Mithril Capital Lembas LLC Rivendell LLC and Arda Capital that he founded adopted names originating from Tolkien 22 Thiel excelled in mathematics and scored first in a California wide mathematics competition while attending Bowditch Middle School in Foster City 23 At San Mateo High School he read Ayn Rand admired the optimism and anti communism of then President Ronald Reagan and became valedictorian of his graduating class in 1985 23 24 He studied philosophy at Stanford University During that time debates on identity politics and political correctness were ongoing A Western Culture program which was criticized by The Rainbow Agenda because of a perceived over representation of the achievements of European men was replaced with a Culture Ideas and Values course which instead pushed diversity and multiculturalism This replacement provoked controversy on the campus and led to Thiel co founding The Stanford Review a conservative and libertarian newspaper in 1987 with funding from Irving Kristol 25 Thiel served as The Stanford Review s first editor in chief and remained in that post until completing his Bachelor of Arts in 1989 26 Over the years Thiel has continued that relationship consulting with the top editorial staff several times a year hosting events at his house donating to the newspaper and placing graduating students in internships or jobs within his network 27 Thiel enrolled in Stanford Law School and earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1992 28 While at Stanford Thiel met Rene Girard whose mimetic theory influenced him 29 Mimetic theory posits that human behavior is based upon mimesis and that imitation can engender pointless conflict Girard notes the productive potential of competition It is because of this unprecedented capacity to promote competition within limits that always remain socially if not individually acceptable that we have all the amazing achievements of the modern world but states that competition stifles progress once it becomes an end in itself rivals are more apt to forget about whatever objects are the cause of the rivalry and instead become more fascinated with one another 30 Thiel applied this theory to his personal life and business ventures stating The big problem with competition is that it focuses us on the people around us and while we get better at the things we re competing on we lose sight of anything that s important or transcendent or truly meaningful in our world 31 32 CareerEarly career After graduating from Stanford Law School Thiel clerked for Judge James Larry Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit 33 Thiel then worked as a securities lawyer for Sullivan amp Cromwell in New York He left the law firm after seven months and three days citing a lack of transcendental value in his work 34 He then took a job as a derivatives trader in currency options at Credit Suisse He joined them in 1993 while also working as a speechwriter for former United States Secretary of Education William Bennett before returning to California in 1996 to seek a more meaningful occupation 35 Upon returning to the Bay Area Thiel noticed that the development of the internet and personal computer had launched the dot com boom With financial support from friends and family he raised 1 million toward the establishment of Thiel Capital Management and embarked on his venture capital career 36 Early on he experienced a setback after investing 100 000 in his friend Luke Nosek s unsuccessful web based calendar project His luck changed when Nosek s friend Max Levchin introduced him to his cryptography related company idea which later became their first venture called Confinity in 1998 citation needed PayPal Further information PayPal Early history With Confinity Thiel realized they could develop software to bridge a gap in making online payments Although the use of credit cards and expanding automated teller machine networks provided consumers with more payment options not all merchants had the necessary hardware to accept credit cards Thus consumers had to pay with exact cash or check Thiel wanted to create a type of digital wallet for consumer convenience and security by encrypting data on digital devices and in 1999 Confinity launched PayPal 37 PayPal promised to open up new possibilities for handling money Thiel viewed PayPal s mission as liberating people from the erosion of the value of their currencies due to inflation Thiel spoke in 1999 We re definitely onto something big The need PayPal answers is monumental Everyone in the world needs money to get paid to trade to live Paper money is an ancient technology and an inconvenient means of payment You can run out of it It wears out It can get lost or stolen In the twenty first century people need a form of money that s more convenient and secure something that can be accessed from anywhere with a PDA or an Internet connection Of course what we re calling convenient for American users will be revolutionary for the developing world Many of these countries governments play fast and loose with their currencies They use inflation and sometimes wholesale currency devaluations like we saw in Russia and several Southeast Asian countries last year referring to the 1998 Russian and 1997 Asian financial crisis to take wealth away from their citizens Most of the ordinary people there never have an opportunity to open an offshore account or to get their hands on more than a few bills of a stable currency like U S dollars Eventually PayPal will be able to change this In the future when we make our service available outside the U S and as Internet penetration continues to expand to all economic tiers of people PayPal will give citizens worldwide more direct control over their currencies than they ever had before It will be nearly impossible for corrupt governments to steal wealth from their people through their old means because if they try the people will switch to dollars or Pounds or Yen in effect dumping the worthless local currency for something more secure 38 When PayPal launched at a press conference in 1999 representatives from Nokia and Deutsche Bank sent 3 million in venture funding to Thiel using PayPal on their PalmPilots PayPal then continued to grow through mergers in 2000 with Elon Musk s online financial services company X com and with Pixo a company specializing in mobile commerce These mergers allowed PayPal to expand into the wireless phone market and transformed it into a safer and more user friendly tool by enabling users to transfer money via a free online registration and email rather than by exchanging bank account information PayPal went public on 15 February 2002 and was sold to eBay for 1 5 billion in October of that year 39 Thiel remained CEO of the company until the sale 6 His 3 7 stake in the company was worth 55 million at the time of acquisition 40 In Silicon Valley circles Thiel is colloquially referred to as the Don of the PayPal Mafia 41 Clarium Capital Further information Clarium Capital Thiel used 10 million of his proceeds to create Clarium Capital Management a global macro hedge fund focusing on directional and liquid instruments in currencies interest rates commodities and equities 42 Thiel stated that the big macroeconomic idea that we had at Clarium the idee fixe was the peak oil theory which was basically that the world was running out of oil and that there were no easy alternatives 23 In 2003 Thiel successfully bet that the United States dollar would weaken 43 In 2004 Thiel spoke of the dot com bubble having migrated in effect into a growing bubble in the financial sector and specified General Electric and Walmart as vulnerable In 2005 Clarium saw a 57 1 return 44 as Thiel predicted that the dollar would rally 43 However Clarium faltered in 2006 with a 7 8 loss citation needed During this time the firm sought to profit in the long term from its petrodollar analysis which foresaw the impending decline in oil supplies and the unsustainable bubble growing in the U S housing market citation needed Clarium s assets under management grew after achieving a 40 3 return in 2007 to more than 7 billion by 2008 but fell as financial markets collapsed near the start of 2009 citation needed By 2011 after missing out on the economic rebound many key investors pulled out reducing the value of Clarium s assets to 350 million two thirds of which was Thiel s money 45 Palantir Further information Palantir Technologies In May 2003 Thiel incorporated Palantir Technologies a big data analysis company named after the Tolkien artifact 46 He continues to serve as its chairman as of 2022 47 48 Thiel stated that the idea for the company was based on the realization that the approaches that PayPal had used to fight fraud could be extended into other contexts like fighting terrorism He also stated that after the September 11 attacks the debate in the United States was will we have more security with less privacy or less security with more privacy He envisioned Palantir as providing data mining services to government intelligence agencies that were maximally unintrusive and traceable 49 50 Palantir s first backer was the Central Intelligence Agency s venture capital arm In Q Tel The company steadily grew and in 2015 was valued at 20 billion with Thiel being the company s largest shareholder 51 52 Facebook Further information Facebook Thefacebook Thiel investment and name change In August 2004 Thiel made a 500 000 angel investment in Facebook for a 10 2 stake in the company and joined Facebook s board This was the first outside investment in Facebook and valued the company at 4 9 million 53 54 As a board member Thiel was not actively involved in Facebook s operations He provided help with timing the various rounds of funding and Zuckerberg credited Thiel with helping him time Facebook s 2007 Series D which closed before the 2008 financial crisis 55 In his book The Facebook Effect David Kirkpatrick outlines how Thiel came to make this investment Napster co founder Sean Parker who at the time had assumed the title of President of Facebook was seeking investors Parker approached Reid Hoffman the CEO of work based social network LinkedIn Hoffman liked Facebook but declined to become lead investor because of the potential for conflict of interest Hoffman directed Parker to Thiel whom he knew from their PayPal days Thiel met Parker and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg Thiel and Zuckerberg got along well and Thiel agreed to lead Facebook s seed round with 500 000 for 10 2 of the company The investment was originally in the form of a convertible note to be converted to equity if Facebook reached 1 5 million users by the end of 2004 Although Facebook narrowly missed the target Thiel allowed the loan to be converted to equity anyway 56 Thiel said of his investment I was comfortable with them pursuing their original vision And it was a very reasonable valuation I thought it was going to be a pretty safe investment 56 In September 2010 Thiel while expressing skepticism about the potential for growth in the consumer Internet sector argued that relative to other Internet companies Facebook which then had a secondary market valuation of 30 billion was comparatively undervalued 57 Facebook s initial public offering was in May 2012 with a market cap of nearly 100 billion 38 a share at which time Thiel sold 16 8 million shares for 638 million 58 In August 2012 immediately upon the conclusion of the early investor lock up period Thiel sold almost all of his remaining stake for between 19 27 and 20 69 per share or 395 8 million for a total of more than 1 billion 59 He retained his seat on the board of directors 60 In 2016 he sold a little under 1 million of his shares for around 100 million In November 2017 he sold another 160 805 shares for 29 million putting his holdings in Facebook at 59 913 Class A shares 61 As of April 2020 he owned less than 10 000 shares in Facebook 62 On 7 February 2022 Thiel announced he would not stand for re election to the board of Facebook owner Meta at the 2022 annual stockholders meeting and will leave after serving 17 years in order to support pro Donald Trump candidates in the 2022 United States elections 48 63 Founders Fund Further information Founders Fund In 2005 Thiel created Founders Fund a San Francisco based venture capital fund 64 Other partners in the fund include Sean Parker Ken Howery and Luke Nosek 65 In addition to Facebook Thiel made early stage investments in numerous startups personally or through Founders Fund including Airbnb 23 Slide com 66 LinkedIn 23 Friendster 67 RapLeaf Geni com Yammer Yelp Inc Spotify 23 Powerset Practice Fusion MetaMed Vator SpaceX 23 Palantir Technologies IronPort Votizen Asana Big Think CapLinked Quora Nanotronics Imaging Rypple TransferWise Stripe Block one 68 and AltSchool 69 In 2017 Founders Fund bought about 15 20 million worth of bitcoin In January 2018 the firm told investors that due to the cryptocurrency s surge the holdings were worth hundreds of millions of dollars 70 Also in 2017 Thiel was one of the first outside investors in Clearview AI a facial recognition technology startup that has raised concerns in the tech world and media for its risks of weaponization 71 72 Valar Ventures Further information Valar Ventures Through Valar Ventures an internationally focused venture firm he cofounded with Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald 73 Thiel was an early investor in Xero a software firm headquartered in New Zealand 74 Valar Ventures also invested in New Zealand based companies Pacific Fibre 75 and Booktrack 76 Mithril Capital In June 2012 he launched Mithril Capital Management named after the fictitious metal in The Lord of the Rings with Jim O Neill and Ajay Royan Unlike Clarium Capital Mithril Capital a fund with 402 million at the time of launch targets companies that are beyond the startup stage and ready to scale up 77 78 Y Combinator In March 2015 Thiel joined Y Combinator as one of 10 part time partners 79 In November 2017 it was reported that Y Combinator had severed its ties with Thiel 80 Gawker lawsuitMain article Bollea v Gawker In May 2016 Thiel confirmed in an interview with The New York Times that he had paid 10 million in legal expenses to finance several lawsuits brought by others including a lawsuit by Terry Bollea Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media for invasion of privacy intentional infliction of emotional distress and infringement of personality rights after Gawker made sections of a sex tape involving Bollea public 81 The jury awarded Bollea 140 million and Gawker announced it was permanently closing due to the lawsuit in August 2016 82 Thiel referred to his financial support of Bollea s case as one of the greater philanthropic things that I ve done 83 Thiel said he was motivated to sue Gawker after they published a 2007 article publicly outing him headlined Peter Thiel is totally gay people Thiel stated that Gawker articles about others including his friends had ruined people s lives for no reason and said It s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence 83 In response to criticism that his funding of lawsuits against Gawker could restrict the freedom of the press Thiel cited his donations to the Committee to Protect Journalists and stated I refuse to believe that journalism means massive privacy violations I think much more highly of journalists than that It s precisely because I respect journalists that I do not believe they are endangered by fighting back against Gawker 83 On 15 August 2016 Thiel published an opinion piece in The New York Times in which he argued that his defense of online privacy went beyond Gawker 84 He highlighted his support for the Intimate Privacy Protection Act and said that athletes and business executives have the right to stay in the closet as long as they want to 84 Political activitiesThiel is a self described conservative libertarian 85 though more recently he has espoused support for national conservatism 86 and criticized economically liberal attitudes towards free trade 87 and big tech 86 In 2019 Thiel called Google seemingly treasonous and urged a government investigation citing Google s work with China and asking whether DeepMind or Google s senior management had been infiltrated by foreign intelligence agencies 88 Thiel is a member of the Steering Committee 89 of the Bilderberg Group a private annual gathering of intellectual figures political leaders and business executives 90 Support for political activism Thiel who is gay 91 92 has supported mostly conservative gay rights causes such as the American Foundation for Equal Rights and GOProud 93 He invited conservative columnist and friend Ann Coulter to Homocon 2010 as a guest speaker 94 Coulter later dedicated her 2011 book Demonic How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America to Thiel 95 Thiel is mentioned in the acknowledgments of Coulter s Adios America The Left s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole 96 In 2012 Thiel donated 10 000 to Minnesotans United for All Families in order to fight Minnesota Amendment 1 97 that proposed to ban marriage between same sex couples there In 2009 it was reported that Thiel helped fund college student James O Keefe s Taxpayers Clearing House video a satirical look at the Wall Street bailout 98 O Keefe went on to produce the ACORN undercover sting videos but through a spokesperson Thiel denied involvement in the ACORN sting 98 In July 2012 Thiel made a 1 million donation to the Club for Growth a fiscally conservative 501 c 4 organization becoming the group s largest contributor 99 Club for Growth is a conservative organization with an agenda focused on cutting taxes and other economic issues Support for political candidates Thiel is a member of the Republican Party 100 He contributes to both Libertarian and Republican candidates and causes Thiel speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention In December 2007 Thiel endorsed Ron Paul for President 101 After Paul failed to secure the Republican nomination Thiel contributed to the John McCain campaign 102 In 2010 Thiel supported Meg Whitman in her unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California He contributed the maximum allowable 25 900 to the Whitman campaign 103 In 2012 Thiel along with Nosek and Scott Banister put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC Collectively they gave 3 9 million to Endorse Liberty whose purpose was to promote Ron Paul As of 31 January 2012 Endorse Liberty reported spending about 3 3 million promoting Paul by setting up two YouTube channels buying ads from Google Facebook and StumbleUpon and building a presence on the Web 104 After Paul again failed to secure the nomination Thiel contributed to the Mitt Romney Paul Ryan presidential ticket of 2012 102 Thiel initially supported Carly Fiorina s campaign during the 2016 GOP presidential primary elections 105 After Fiorina dropped out Thiel supported Donald Trump and became one of the California delegates for Trump s nomination He was a headline speaker during the convention during which he announced that he was proud to be gay for which the assembled Republicans cheered 106 107 On 15 October 2016 Thiel announced a 1 25 million donation in support of Donald Trump s presidential campaign 108 Thiel stated to The New York Times I didn t give him any money for a long time because I didn t think it mattered and then the campaign asked me to 109 After Trump s victory Thiel was named to the executive committee of the President elect s transition team 110 Thiel also has his own political action committee Free Forever which is committed to supporting political candidates who support stricter border control restrictive immigration policy funds for veterans and anti interventionist foreign policy among other things 111 112 By February 2022 Thiel was one of the largest donors to Republican candidates in the 2022 election campaign with more than 20 4 million in contributions He supported 16 senatorial and congressional candidates several of whom were proponents of the falsehood that there was significant voter fraud in the 2020 election Two of said senatorial candidates Blake Masters and J D Vance were also tech investors who had previously worked for Thiel 113 PhilanthropyFurther information Thiel Foundation Thiel carries out most of his philanthropic activities through the Thiel Foundation 114 115 Research Artificial intelligence In 2006 Thiel provided 100 000 of matching funds to back the Singularity Challenge donation drive of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence now known as the Machine Intelligence Research Institute a nonprofit organization that promotes the development of friendly artificial intelligence 116 He provided half of the 400 000 matching funds for the 2007 donation drive and as of 2013 the Thiel Foundation had donated over 1 million to the institute 116 Additionally he has spoken at multiple Singularity Summits 117 118 119 At the 2009 Singularity Summit he said his greatest concern is the technological singularity not arriving soon enough 118 In December 2015 OpenAI announced that Thiel was one of their financial backers a nonprofit company aimed at the safe development of artificial general intelligence 120 Thiel also backed DeepMind a UK start up that was acquired by Google in early 2014 for 400 million 121 Life extension In September 2006 Thiel announced that he would donate 3 5 million to foster anti aging research through the non profit Methuselah Mouse Prize foundation 122 123 He gave the following reasons for his pledge Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century including dramatically improved health and longevity for all I m backing Dr Aubrey de Grey because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process allowing many people alive today to enjoy radically longer and healthier lives for themselves and their loved ones As of February 2017 he had donated over 7 million to the foundation 124 When asked What is the biggest achievement that you haven t achieved yet by the moderator of a discussion panel at the Venture Alpha West 2014 conference Thiel said he wants to make progress on anti aging research 125 Thiel also said that he is registered to be cryonically preserved meaning that he would be subject to low temperature preservation in case of his legal death in hopes that he might be successfully revived by future medical technology and is signed up with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation 21 Seasteading On 15 April 2008 Thiel pledged 500 000 to the newly created non profit Seasteading Institute 126 directed by Patri Friedman whose mission is to establish permanent autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social political and legal systems 127 128 At one of the institute s conferences he described seasteading as one of the few technological frontiers that has the promise to create a new space for human freedom 129 In 2011 Thiel gave 1 25 million to the Seasteading Institute 130 131 but resigned from its board the same year 132 In a 2017 interview with The New York Times Thiel said seasteads are not quite feasible from an engineering perspective and still very far in the future 133 134 Thiel Fellowship On 29 September 2010 Thiel created the Thiel Fellowship which annually awards 100 000 to 20 people under the age of 23 in order to spur them to drop out of college and create their own ventures 135 136 137 According to Thiel for many young people college is the path to take when they have no idea what to do with their lives I feel I was personally very guilty of this you don t know what to do with your life so you get a college degree you don t know what you re going to do with your college degree so you get a graduate degree In my case it was law school which is the classic thing one does when one has no idea what else to do I don t have any big regrets but if I had to do it over I would try to think more about the future than I did at the time You cannot get out of student debt even if you personally go bankrupt it s a form of almost like indentured servitude it s attached to your physical person for the rest of your life 21 Breakout Labs In November 2011 the Thiel Foundation announced the creation of Breakout Labs a grant making program intended to fill the funding gap that exists for innovative research outside the confines of an academic institution large corporation or government 138 139 It offers grants of up to 350 000 to science focused start ups with no strings attached 140 141 In April 2012 Breakout Labs announced its first set of grantees 139 142 In total 12 startups received funding for a total of 4 5 million in grants 140 One of the first ventures to receive funding from Breakout Labs was 3Scan a tissue imaging platform 141 Other causes The Thiel Foundation is a supporter of the Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ which promotes the right of journalists to report the news freely without fear of reprisal 143 Beginning in 2008 Thiel has donated over 1 million to the CPJ 144 He is also a supporter of the Human Rights Foundation which organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum 145 146 In 2011 he was a featured speaker at the Oslo Freedom Forum and the Thiel Foundation was one of the event s main sponsors 146 In 2011 Thiel made a NZ 1 million donation to an appeal fund for the casualties of the Christchurch earthquake 147 Personal lifeThiel married his long time partner Matt Danzeisen in October 2017 in Vienna Austria 148 Danzeisen works as a portfolio manager at Thiel Capital 149 Religious views Thiel is a self described Christian and a promoter of Rene Girard s Christian anthropology 150 He grew up in an evangelical household but as of 2011 describes his religious beliefs as somewhat heterodox and stated I believe Christianity is true but I don t sort of feel a compelling need to convince other people of that 45 Thiel has participated in Veritas Forum events with the noted theologian N T Wright discussing religion politics and technology 151 152 During his time at Stanford University Thiel attended a lecture given by Rene Girard Girard a Catholic explained the role of sacrifice and the scapegoat mechanism in resolving social conflict which appealed to Thiel as it offered a basis for his Christian faith without the fundamentalism of his parents 153 Chess Thiel began playing chess at the age of six 23 and was at one time one of the strongest junior players in the United States 154 155 156 He holds the title of Life Master 157 158 but has not competed since 2003 100 On 30 November 2016 Thiel made the ceremonial first move in the first tiebreak game of the World Chess Championship 2016 between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen 155 159 160 Media appearances Thiel is an occasional commentator on CNBC having appeared on both Closing Bell with Kelly Evans and Squawk Box with Becky Quick 161 He has been interviewed twice by Charlie Rose on PBS 162 He has also contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal First Things Forbes and Policy Review a journal formerly published by the Hoover Institution on whose board he sits In The Social Network Thiel was portrayed by Wallace Langham 163 He described the film as wrong on many levels 164 Thiel was the inspiration for the Peter Gregory character on HBO s Silicon Valley 165 Thiel said of Gregory I liked him I think eccentric is always better than evil 166 Jonas Luscher stated in an interview with Basellandschaftliche Zeitung that he based the character Tobias Erkner in his novel Kraft Force on Thiel 167 Right Time to Thiel by satirist Jan Bohmermann 2022 is a Bond theme style song and music video 168 New Zealand citizenship Thiel was a German citizen by birth and became an American citizen by naturalization 169 He had received permanent residency in New Zealand in 2007 170 171 He had visited the country on four occasions prior to his application for citizenship 172 and had spent 12 days in New Zealand fewer than the typical residency requirement of 1350 days 173 When he applied he stated he had no intention of living in New Zealand which is a criterion for citizenship 174 Then Minister of Internal Affairs Nathan Guy waived those normal requirements under an exceptional circumstances clause of the Citizenships Act 175 172 174 He became a New Zealand citizen in 2011 which became public in 2017 175 In 2015 he purchased a 193 hectare estate near Wanaka which fitted the classification of sensitive land and required foreign buyers to obtain permission from New Zealand s Overseas Investment Office Thiel did not require permission as he was a citizen 176 Thiel s application cited his contribution to the economy he had founded a venture capital fund in Auckland before applying and invested 7 million in two local companies as well as a 1 million donation to the 2011 Christchurch earthquake appeal fund 172 Rod Drury founder of Xero also provided a formal reference for Thiel s application 175 Thiel s case was cited by critics as an example of how New Zealand passports can be bought 172 177 something the New Zealand government denied 172 At the time that his citizenship was revealed The New Zealand Herald came out with the report that the New Zealand Defence Force the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications and Security Bureau have long standing links with Thiel s Palantir 178 Roth IRA In 2021 it was revealed by ProPublica that Thiel had purchased 1 7 million founders shares in the entity that would become PayPal using 1 700 in a Roth IRA in 1999 Due to the rapid growth in the value of the shares as PayPal grew and was later acquired by eBay it allowed Thiel to turn his 1700 Roth IRA into an account worth more than 5 billion as of 2019 Most of this increase in the value of the Roth was due to him re investing his PayPal proceeds into companies like Palantir and Facebook which grew quickly after his investment If Thiel waits until 2027 he can withdraw the entire 5 billion amount tax free 179 Awards and honors In 2006 Thiel won the Herman Lay Award for Entrepreneurship 180 In 2007 he was honored as a Young Global leader by the World Economic Forum as one of the 250 most distinguished leaders age 40 and under 181 On 7 November 2009 Thiel was awarded an honorary degree from Guatemalan Universidad Francisco Marroquin 182 In 2012 Students For Liberty an organization dedicated to spreading libertarian ideals on college campuses awarded Thiel its Alumnus of the Year award 183 In February 2013 Thiel received a TechCrunch Crunchie Award for Venture Capitalist of the Year 184 ViewsPolitics The Straussian Moment an essay written by Thiel in 2004 is sometimes considered to be a fundamental text in his political thinking and was the subject of a 2019 interview at the Hoover Institution The essay draws on several thinkers and political theorists and argues that the September 11 attacks upset the entire political and military framework of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and therefore a reexamination of the foundations of modern politics was needed 1 Thiel explained in a 2009 essay that he had come to no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible due in large part to welfare beneficiaries and women in general being notoriously tough for libertarians constituencies and that he had focused efforts on new technologies namely cyberspace space colonization and seasteading that could create a new space for freedom beyond current politics 185 Said essay has been referenced by Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land the main theorists of the neo reactionary movement in their writings 186 Innovation In a 2015 conversation with Tyler Cowen Thiel claimed that innovative breakthroughs were happening in computing IT and not the physical world He laments the lack of progress in space travel high speed transit and medical devices As a cause for the discrepancy he says I would say that we lived in a world in which bits were unregulated and atoms were regulated 187 Published booksThe Diversity Myth In 1995 the Independent Institute published The Diversity Myth Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford which Thiel co authored along with fellow tech entrepreneur David O Sacks and with a foreword by the late Emory University historian Elizabeth Fox Genovese 188 The book is critical of political correctness and multiculturalism in higher education and alleges that it has diluted academic rigor Thiel and Sacks writings drew criticism from then Stanford Provost Condoleezza Rice and then Stanford President Gerhard Casper in describing Thiel and Sacks view of Stanford as a cartoon not a description of our freshman curriculum 189 and their commentary as demagoguery pure and simple 190 In 2016 Thiel apologized for two statements he made in the book 1 The purpose of the rape crisis movement seems as much about vilifying men as about raising awareness and 2 But since a multicultural rape charge may indicate nothing more than belated regret a woman might realize that she had been raped the next day or even many days later He stated More than two decades ago I co wrote a book with several insensitive crudely argued statements As I ve said before I wish I d never written those things I m sorry for it Rape in all forms is a crime I regret writing passages that have been taken to suggest otherwise 191 Zero to One In Spring 2012 Thiel taught CS 183 Startup at Stanford University 192 Notes for the course taken by student Blake Masters led to a book titled Zero to One Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future by Thiel and Masters which was released in September 2014 193 194 195 Thiel would later go on to endorse Masters campaign in the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona and spend more than 10 million in its support 196 Derek Thompson writing for The Atlantic stated Zero to One might be the best business book I ve read He described it as a self help book for entrepreneurs bursting with bromides but also as a lucid and profound articulation of capitalism and success in the 21st century economy 197 Tools of Titans Thiel also has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss self help book Tools of Titans The Tactics Routines and Habits of Billionaires Icons and World Class Performers References a b Wiener Anna 27 October 2021 What Is It About Peter Thiel The New Yorker 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 Retrieved 7 February 2022 Thiel Peter 13 April 2009 The Education of a Libertarian Cato Institute Archived from the original on 16 April 2014 Retrieved 26 April 2014 Purdy Jedediah The Anti Democratic Worldview of Steve Bannon and Peter Thiel Politico Magazine 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 a b Lien Tracey 15 February 2018 Peter Thiel s resume includes PayPal Facebook and supporting Trump And he s coming to L A Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 24 July 2018 Retrieved 24 July 2018 Bloomberg Billionaires Index Peter Thiel Bloomberg Archived from the original on 31 December 2021 Retrieved 12 May 2022 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 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 O Dea Meghan Peter Thiel Archived 4 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine In Immigrant Entrepreneurship German American Business Biographies 1720 to the Present vol 5 edited by R Daniel Wadhwani German Historical Institute Last modified 24 July 2015 a b Peter Thiel s application for New Zealand citizenship PDF New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs p 65 Archived PDF from the original on 18 February 2019 Ratnesar Romesh 3 February 2011 Peter Thiel 21st Century Free Radical Bloomberg L P Archived from the original on 27 March 2019 Retrieved 11 March 2017 Thiel Peter 11 September 2014 Peter Thiel technology entrepreneur and investor AMA Reddit Archived from the original on 1 March 2017 Retrieved 11 September 2014 Packer 2013 pp 120 121 Jenkins Holman W Jr 9 October 2010 Technology Salvation The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 23 April 2015 Retrieved 20 May 2012 a b c Brown Mick 19 September 2014 Peter Thiel the billionaire tech entrepreneur on a mission to cheat death The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 18 October 2014 Retrieved 16 October 2014 Who is Peter Thiel and why is he advising Donald Trump BBC News BBC News 14 December 2016 Archived from the original on 30 June 2018 Retrieved 22 June 2018 a b c d e f g h Parloff Roger 4 September 2014 Peter Thiel disagrees with you Fortune Archived from the original on 5 December 2016 Retrieved 18 November 2016 Daetz Ama 22 September 2014 Billionaire weighs in on Silicon Valley s future ABC News Archived from the original on 19 November 2016 Retrieved 18 November 2016 Packer 2013 p 125 Bahareth Mohammad 2012 Kings of the Internet What You Don t Know About Them iUniverse p 71 ISBN 978 1469798424 Granato Andrew 27 November 2017 Stanford Politics stanfordpolitics org Archived from the original on 7 February 2021 Retrieved 26 February 2021 Paypal Inc Form S 1 A Filing Date Jan 31 2002 secdatabase com Archived from the original on 15 May 2018 Retrieved 14 May 2018 Feloni Richard 10 November 2014 Peter Thiel explains how an esoteric philosophy book shaped his worldview Business Insider Archived from the original on 22 November 2016 Retrieved 22 November 2016 Girard Rene 1987 Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World Stanford University Press pp 7 26 307 Baer Drake 4 February 2015 Here s the advice billionaire investor Peter Thiel wishes he could ve given his younger self Business Insider Archived from the original on 22 November 2016 Retrieved 22 November 2016 Thiel Peter 12 September 2014 Competition Is for Losers The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 25 December 2019 Retrieved 11 March 2017 Roberts Jeff John 15 September 2016 Rumor About Trump s Supreme Court Pick Causes a Stir But Appears Untrue Fortune Archived from the original on 1 January 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Stanford Law School Articles Archive Archived from the original on 5 March 2016 Retrieved 29 May 2016 Hibbard Justin Big Bucks From Bubble Fears Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Business Week 8 November 2004 Retrieved 27 July 2015 Parloff Roger 4 September 2014 Peter Thiel disagrees with you Fortune Archived from the original on 6 December 2019 Retrieved 10 March 2021 When PayPal was young the early years VatorNews 5 February 2018 Archived from the original on 30 December 2019 Retrieved 30 December 2019 Jackson Eric M 2004 The PayPal Wars p Kindle Locations 321 327 eBay picks up PayPal for 1 5 billion by Margaret Kane CNET News com Archived from the original on 14 July 2008 Retrieved 24 January 2008 On Monday eBay said it is acquiring online payments company PayPal in a deal valued at 1 5 billion SEC Info Ebay Inc S 4 on 8 6 02 Archived from the original on 14 December 2006 Retrieved 24 January 2008 O Brien Jeffrey M 14 November 2007 The PayPal mafia November 14 2007 CNN Archived from the original on 20 July 2008 Retrieved 24 January 2008 Peter Thiel Biography amp Facts Encyclopedia Britannica Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 19 March 2020 a b The life and rise of billionaire investor Peter Thiel Trump s biggest Silicon Valley supporter who might be moving to Los Angeles Business Insider Archived from the original on 18 August 2018 Retrieved 17 August 2018 Savitz Eric J 13 February 2006 A Second Payday for PayPal Founder The Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Archived from the original on 18 August 2018 Retrieved 17 August 2018 a b Packer George No Death No Taxes The libertarian futurism of a Silicon Valley billionaire The New Yorker Archived from the original on 24 November 2011 Retrieved 7 December 2011 Wexner David 4 August 2018 The hidden logic of Peter Thiel s Lord of the Rings inspired company names Quartz Archived from the original on 19 March 2020 Retrieved 19 March 2020 Palantir s Hotly Anticipated IPO Set to Slide to 2020 Bloomberg com 24 May 2019 Archived from the original on 19 March 2020 Retrieved 19 March 2020 a b Feiner Lauren Levy Ari 7 February 2022 Peter Thiel to step down from board of Facebook parent Meta CNBC Palantir the War on Terror s Secret Weapon Bloomberg com 22 November 2011 Archived from the original on 22 September 2020 Retrieved 26 September 2020 Andy Greenberg How A Deviant Philosopher Built Palantir A CIA Funded Data Mining Juggernaut Forbes Archived from the original on 27 June 2015 Retrieved 7 June 2015 Mac Ryan 11 December 2014 Palantir Aiming To Raise 400 Million In New Round Forbes Archived from the original on 2 January 2015 Retrieved 21 December 2014 Buhr Sarah 23 December 2015 Palantir Has Raised 880 Million At A 20 Billion Valuation TechCrunch Archived from the original on 29 January 2017 Retrieved 14 December 2016 Shareholder trading values Facebook at more than 33bn the Guardian 25 August 2010 Archived from the original on 14 June 2020 Retrieved 17 May 2020 Caulfield Brian Perlroth Nicole 14 February 2011 Life After Facebook Forbes Archived from the original on 23 March 2013 Retrieved 29 November 2011 Kirkpatrick David 8 June 2010 The Facebook Effect p 246 Simon amp Schuster Kindle Edition a b Kirkpatrick David 2010 The Facebook Effect Simon amp Schuster pp 87 88 Peter Thiel Why Facebook Is Like Ford Motors In The 1920s Archived from the original on 16 May 2012 Retrieved 16 June 2012 Tiku Nitasha 19 January 2013 Peter Thiel Sells Almost All of His Facebook Stock Donates 1 Million to a Tea Party PAC Archived 30 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine Betabeat Retrieved on 23 October 2013 Alexei Oreskovic 19 August 2012 Facebook director Thiel sold 20 million shares after lock up Reuters Archived from the original on 17 August 2016 Retrieved 19 August 2012 Julia Boorstin 20 August 2012 Investor Peter Thiel Sells Facebook Shares CNBC Archived from the original on 22 October 2012 Retrieved 20 August 2012 Reuters Staff 22 November 2017 Peter Thiel sells most of remaining Facebook stake Reuters Archived from the original on 24 November 2017 Retrieved 24 November 2017 Shinal John 22 November 2017 Peter Thiel just sold more Facebook shares but his big mistake was dumping them in 2012 CNBC Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 14 April 2020 Peter Thiel to leave Meta board to pursue Trump political agenda The Jerusalem Post JPost com Retrieved 9 February 2022 Block one Closes Strategic Investment Round Led by Peter Thiel and Bitmain Archived from the original on 16 September 2018 Retrieved 1 November 2018 Siu Eric 25 August 2015 What Types of Companies Is Peter Thiel s Founders Fund Actually Investing In Entrepreneur Archived from the original on 12 April 2018 Retrieved 11 April 2018 PayPal Reunion Dave McClure Joins Founders Fund Archived 31 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine ReadWrite How Friendster lost chance for a jackpot Archived 31 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times Peter Thiel Backed Crypto Startup Pays Out 6 567 Return Bloomberg com 22 May 2019 Archived from the original on 8 January 2020 Retrieved 19 March 2020 Can AltSchool The Edtech Startup With 174M From Billionaires Like Zuckerberg And Thiel Save Itself From Failure Archived 30 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine Forbes Cheng Evelyn 2 January 2018 Bitcoin rises after report says early Facebook investor Peter Thiel is buying massive amounts CNBC Archived from the original on 9 January 2018 Retrieved 8 January 2018 Hill Kashmir 18 January 2020 The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 18 January 2020 Retrieved 18 January 2020 Hill Kashmir 18 January 2020 The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 10 February 2020 Retrieved 11 February 2020 Gobry Pascal Emmanuel 14 January 2011 Billionaire Facebook Investor Peter Thiel Pours Money Into His Utopia New Zealand Business Insider Archived from the original on 26 August 2014 Retrieved 21 August 2014 Drury Rod 21 October 2010 Peter Thiel to Invest in Xero Xero Xero Archived from the original on 20 October 2018 Retrieved 21 August 2014 Pascal Emmanuel Gobry Billionaire Facebook Investor Peter Thiel Pours Money Into His Utopia New Zealand Archived 8 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine 15 January 2011 Booktrack Raises 2 Million From Peter Thiel Park Road And Others To Add Soundtracks To E books Archived 15 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine TechCrunch Hsu Tiffany 20 June 2012 Facebook investor Peter Thiel opens Mithril venture capital fund Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 6 November 2013 Retrieved 20 February 2020 Cutler Kim Mai 19 June 2012 Peter Thiel Launches Mithril A New 402 Million Late Stage Fund TechCrunch Archived from the original on 18 December 2012 Retrieved 14 December 2012 Welcome Peter Y Combinator Posthaven Archived from the original on 21 May 2015 Retrieved 7 June 2015 Coren Michael J 17 November 2017 Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with star accelerator Y Combinator Quartz Archived from the original on 19 November 2017 Retrieved 19 November 2017 McBride Sarah Somerville Heather 25 May 2016 Tech billionaire Thiel helps Hulk Hogan Yahoo Tech Archived from the original on 26 May 2016 Retrieved 26 May 2016 Davey Alba 18 August 2016 Peter Thiel Just Got His Wish Gawker Is Shutting Down Wired Archived from the original on 18 August 2016 Retrieved 18 August 2016 a b c Peter Thiel Tech Billionaire Reveals Secret War With Gawker Archived 23 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine By Andrew Ross Sorkin The New York Times 25 May 2016 a b Thiel Peter 15 August 2016 Peter Thiel The Online Privacy Debate Won t End With Gawker The New York Times Archived from the original on 17 August 2016 Retrieved 16 August 2016 Street Aaron 2 March 2013 Peter Thiel on the Role of Technology and Globalization in Our Economy Politics Law amp Economics Blog Archived from the original on 6 May 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 a b Peter Thiel Explains the New National Conservatism Reason 17 July 2019 Archived from the original on 22 September 2019 Retrieved 3 January 2020 Peter Thiel s Oddly Conventional Defense of Trump The New Yorker 1 November 2016 Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 3 January 2020 Peter Thiel Urges U S Probe of Google s Seemingly Treasonous Acts Bloomberg 15 July 2019 Archived from the original on 31 October 2019 Retrieved 17 January 2020 Steering Committee 1 May 2021 Archived from the original on 1 May 2021 Retrieved 1 May 2021 Cadwalladr Carole 21 September 2014 Peter Thiel We attribute too much to luck Luck is an atheistic word for God The Observer p 8 Archived from the original on 21 September 2014 Retrieved 21 September 2014 Kitroeff Natalie 7 October 2014 Peter Thiel on Creativity Asperger s Promotes It Business School Crushes It BusinessWeek Archived from the original on 31 December 2014 Retrieved 24 December 2014 Kantor Jodi 23 December 2014 For Stanford Class of 94 a Gender Gap More Powerful Than the Internet The New York Times Archived from the original on 4 November 2016 Retrieved 25 February 2017 Weisberg Jacob 16 October 2010 Hyper libertarian Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel s appalling plan to pay students to quit college Slate Archived from the original on 3 October 2011 Retrieved 7 October 2011 Outflanked on Right Coulter Seeks New Image The New York Times 8 October 2010 Archived from the original on 13 April 2014 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Demonic How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America Library Thing Archived from the original on 27 December 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Coulter Ann 2015 Adios America The Left s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hell Hole Washington DC Regnery Publishing p 280 ISBN 978 1621576068 OCLC 949987257 Others who have helped with this book mostly by reading chapters and voting on titles but in other ways as well are Bill Armistead Jon Caldara Peter Brimelow Rodney Conover Mallory and Thomas Danaher David Friedman James Fulford Ron Gordon Kevin Harrington David Limbaugh Jay Mann Jim Moody Dan Travers Jon Tukel Marshall Sella Peter Thiel Kelly Victory and Younis Zubchevich Who is funding the marriage amendment fight Minn Post 1 November 2012 Archived from the original on 26 December 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 a b Steven Thrasher 22 September 2009 The Money Trail Conservative Facebook Investor Funded Anti ACORN Videographer The Village Voice Archived from the original on 5 February 2017 Retrieved 25 January 2017 Gregory Giroux 20 August 2012 Thiel s 1 Million Tops Donors to Club for Growth Super PAC Bloomberg Archived from the original on 30 March 2013 Retrieved 16 October 2012 a b Schwab Florian Interview of the Week Peter Thiel Die Weltwoche Archived from the original on 24 July 2018 Retrieved 23 July 2018 Endorsements Blog Archive Peter Thiel Archived from the original on 23 January 2008 Retrieved 24 January 2008 a b Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions CampaignMoney com Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2000 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 12 September 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2002 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 12 September 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2004 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 26 December 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2006 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 26 December 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2008 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 12 September 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2010 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 12 September 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2012 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 12 September 2013 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Peter Thiel Political Campaign Contributions 2014 Election Cycle Archived from the original on 10 February 2014 Retrieved 25 December 2013 Fost Dan Old Pay Pals Peter Thiel backs Meg Whitman Archived 24 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Forbes blog 17 September 2010 Retrieved 11 January 2011 Selyukh Alina 31 January 2012 PayPal co founders fund pro Paul Super PAC Reuters Archived from the original on 1 February 2012 Retrieved 31 January 2012 Kim Susanna 10 May 2016 Billionaire Paypal Co Founder Peter Thiel on List of Trump Backers ABC News Archived from the original on 11 May 2016 Retrieved 10 May 2016 Selyukh Alina 21 July 2016 I Am Proud To Be Gay Tech Investor Peter Thiel Tells GOP Convention NPR Archived from the original on 22 July 2016 Retrieved 22 July 2016 Margolin Emma 2016 Peter Thiel Makes History at RNC I m Proud to be Gay NBC News Archived from the original on 19 January 2019 Retrieved 22 July 2016 Streitfeld David 15 October 2016 Peter Thiel to Donate 1 25 Million in Support of Donald Trump The New York Times Archived from the original on 16 October 2016 Retrieved 16 October 2016 Dowd Maureen 11 January 2017 Peter Thiel Trump s Tech Pal Explains Himself The New York Times Archived from the original on 22 May 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Kokalitcheva Kia 11 November 2016 Silicon Valley Investor Peter Thiel Will Join Trump s Transition Team Fortune Archived from the original on 28 May 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2017 About Free Forever PAC Archived from the original on 3 July 2020 Retrieved 3 July 2020 Mickle Rob Copeland Keach Hagey and Tripp 2 July 2020 Tech Tycoon Peter Thiel Shies From Trump Re Election Campaign The Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Archived from the original on 2 July 2020 Retrieved 3 July 2020 Mac Ryan Lerer Lisa 14 February 2022 The Right s Would Be Kingmaker The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 14 February 2022 Thiel Foundation website Archived from the original on 21 August 2009 Retrieved 28 September 2009 Peter Thiel Inside Philanthropy Archived from the original on 27 April 2018 Retrieved 26 April 2018 a b A Singular Sort of Cult Archived 1 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Huffington Post Peter Thiel Explains How to Invest in the Singularity Archived 16 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine Wired a b Singularity Summit Peter Thiel On His Single Greatest Fear Archived 30 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine H Magazine Back to the Future Peter Thiel on Technology and Investment Strategy at the NYC Singularity Summit Business Insider Archived from the original on 17 October 2018 Retrieved 17 October 2018 Priestly Theo 11 December 2015 Elon Musk And Peter Thiel Launch OpenAI A Non Profit Artificial Intelligence Research Company Forbes Archived from the original on 14 December 2015 Retrieved 11 December 2015 Shead Sam How DeepMind convinced billionaire Peter Thiel to invest without moving the company to Silicon Valley Business Insider Archived from the original on 1 March 2020 Retrieved 1 March 2020 The Mprize PayPal Founder pledges 3 5 Million to antiaging research Archived from the original on 21 May 2008 Retrieved 24 January 2008 Davidson Keay 18 September 2006 Entrepreneur backs research on anti aging SFGate Archived from the original on 31 December 2018 Retrieved 6 October 2018 How Silicon Valley Is Trying to Hack Its Way Into a Longer Life Archived 29 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine Time Reilly Richard Byrne 8 October 2014 Billionaire Peter Thiel embarks on anti aging crusade Venture Beat Archived from the original on 20 October 2014 Retrieved 22 October 2014 Floating Cities No Longer Science Fiction Begin to Take Shape Archived 1 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times Introducing The Seasteading Institute Archived from the original on 7 August 2008 Retrieved 16 April 2008 Hodgkinson Tom 6 October 2016 How Utopia shaped the world BBC News Archived from the original on 7 October 2018 Retrieved 6 October 2018 Floating Island Project Pushes On Without Peter Thiel s Support Archived 17 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Bloomberg Milton Friedman s Grandson to Build Floating Libertarian Nation Archived 1 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Peter Thiel s Strangest Projects Archived 1 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Inverse A Silicon Valley billionaire s dream of a floating libertarian utopia may have finally been killed Archived 17 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Business Insider Peter Thiel Trump s Tech Pal Explains Himself Archived 22 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times Tech billionaire Peter Thiel no longer thinks his dream of a floating libertarian utopia is realistic Archived 1 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Business Insider The Thiel Fellowship 20 Under 20 29 September 2010 Archived from the original on 16 January 2018 Retrieved 16 October 2010 Peter Thiel Launches Fellowship Program silicontap com 30 September 2010 Archived from the original on 29 October 2010 Retrieved 30 September 2010 Kolodny Lora 18 December 2013 Why a Nonprofit Backs Dropping Out of School The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 7 October 2018 Retrieved 6 October 2018 About Us Breakout Labs Archived from the original on 14 November 2013 Retrieved 5 December 2013 a b PayPal co founder s Breakout Labs issues first grants Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Nature a b Peter Thiel s Breakout Labs Turns More Science Projects Into Businesses Archived 17 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Forbes a b Breakout Ventures spun out of Peter Thiel s Breakout Labs has closed its debut fund with 60M Archived 17 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine TechCrunch Breakout Labs press release on first batch of grantees 17 April 2012 Archived from the original on 16 June 2012 Retrieved 8 June 2012 Supporters of Press Freedom Supporters of Press Freedom About CPJ Committee to Protect Journalists Cpj org Archived from the original on 2 September 2010 Retrieved 16 October 2010 Holiday Ryan 2018 Conspiracy Peter Thiel Hulk Hogan Gawker and the Anatomy of Intrigue Penguin Books p 45 ISBN 978 0735217669 Freedom Project page on Thiel Foundation website Archived from the original on 25 May 2012 Retrieved 8 June 2012 a b Peter Thiel Urges Investing in Human Rights Archived 17 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine TheStreet van Beynen Martin Kuprienko Dasha 25 January 2017 Billionaire Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel sending more of his mates our way Stuff co nz Archived from the original on 8 September 2017 Retrieved 30 June 2017 Primack Dan Allen Mike 16 October 2017 Peter Thiel got married over the weekend Axios Archived from the original on 2 September 2018 Retrieved 1 September 2018 Billionaire Peter Thiel gets married to Matt Danzeisen Express Digest 18 October 2017 Archived from the original on 13 September 2018 Retrieved 12 September 2018 Salai Sean 1 October 2014 Faith amp Technology Q amp A with Peter Thiel America Archived from the original on 3 September 2016 Retrieved 16 August 2016 Reshaping Our View of God The Veritas Forum 5 February 2016 Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 14 June 2019 www forbes com sites valleyvoices 2015 06 24 peter thiel n t wright on technology hope and the end of death 241a43183848 Paul Elie America s Problem Mimetic Desire Everything That Rises Archived from the original on 7 July 2018 Retrieved 25 December 2013 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 a b Leland John 30 November 2016 Magnus Carlsen Overwhelms Challenger in Tiebreakers to Win World Chess Championship The New York Times Archived from the original on 7 August 2017 Retrieved 30 June 2017 24 executives who are exceptional at chess ChessBase 7 February 2012 Archived from the original on 21 July 2017 Retrieved 30 June 2017 Staff writer s USCF Ratings History Graph for 12056150 Peter Thiel United States Chess Federation Archived from the original on 5 March 2017 Retrieved 24 November 2016 Giang Vivian 16 July 2012 Entrepreneur Challenges Peter Thiel To Million Dollar Chess Game Business Insider Archived from the original on 22 September 2018 Retrieved 21 September 2018 Leswing Kif 1 December 2016 Peter Thiel made a rare public appearance at a chess tournament Business Insider Archived from the original on 18 August 2017 Retrieved 30 June 2017 Staff writer s 30 November 2016 Magnus Carlsen retained the title FIDE Archived from the original on 5 January 2019 Retrieved 21 September 2018 News Headlines Cnbc com 26 February 2009 Archived from the original on 27 October 2020 Retrieved 16 October 2010 Peter Thiel Charlie Rose Archived from the original on 12 October 2010 Retrieved 16 October 2010 Shaffer Matthew 20 January 2011 Back to the Future with Peter Thiel National Review Archived from the original on 2 March 2015 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Wauters Robin 19 November 2010 Peter Thiel Facebook Co Founder Eduardo Saverin Did A Poor Job Got Rich Anyway TechCrunch Archived from the original on 8 July 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Julie Bort 28 April 2014 A Guide To The Best Inside Jokes On HBO s Hit Comedy Silicon Valley Business Insider Archived from the original on 30 April 2014 Retrieved 30 April 2014 Dowd Maureen 11 January 2017 Confirm or Deny Peter Thiel The New York Times Archived from the original on 12 January 2017 Retrieved 12 January 2017 Schuppisser Raffael 16 April 2017 Trend Autor Jonas Luscher Die Reichen werden unsterblich und der grosse Rest uberflussig Basellandschaftliche Zeitung in German Archived from the original on 24 May 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Right Time to Thiel YouTube Retrieved 11 February 2022 Peter Thiel Obtained New Zealand Citizenship Possibly Because Of Exceptional Circumstances Archived 8 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine Forbes Peter Thiel got New Zealand citizenship after spending 12 days there in five years Archived 8 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine CNBC Streitfeld David Williams Jacqueline 1 February 2017 New Zealand Is the Future Peter Thiel Said in His Push for Citizenship The New York Times Archived from the original on 18 May 2020 Retrieved 10 May 2020 a b c d e How Peter Thiel Became a New Zealander The Economist 4 February 2017 Archived from the original on 3 December 2017 Retrieved 8 September 2017 Nippert Matt 29 June 2017 Controversial billionaire Peter Thiel made a Kiwi after two week holiday New Zealand Herald Archived from the original on 15 June 2020 Retrieved 10 May 2020 a b Biddle Sam 2 February 2017 Billionaire Trump Adviser Peter Thiel Bought His New Zealand Citizenship Documents Show The Intercept Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 3 February 2017 a b c Nippert Matt 1 February 2017 Revealed How Peter Thiel got New Zealand citizenship New Zealand Herald Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 10 May 2020 Nippert Matt 25 January 2017 Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel a Kiwi citizen owns Wanaka estate New Zealand Herald Archived from the original on 14 May 2020 Retrieved 10 May 2020 The Many Contradictions Of Peter Thiel s New Zealand Citizenship Archived 7 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine Ryan Mac Forbes 1 February 2017 Nippert Matt Controversial billionaire Peter Thiel made a Kiwi after two week holiday Archived from the original on 15 June 2020 Retrieved 13 June 2020 Bandler Justin Elliott Patricia Callahan James Lord of the Roths How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a 5 Billion Tax Free Piggy Bank ProPublica Archived from the original on 14 July 2021 Retrieved 14 July 2021 The Association of Private Enterprise Education Archived from the original on 6 October 2008 Retrieved 24 January 2008 List of Active Young Global Leaders The Forum of Active Young Global Leaders World Economic Forum 26 January 2010 Archived from the original PDF on 4 March 2012 Retrieved 28 June 2010 Honorary Doctoral Degrees at Universidad Francisco Marroquin Archived from the original on 1 May 2011 Peter Thiel at ISFLC12 You are the Entrepreneur of Your Life 27 February 2012 Archived from the original on 3 June 2012 Retrieved 11 June 2012 Congratulations Crunchies Winners GitHub Wins Best Overall Startup Archived 24 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine TechCrunch 31 January 2013 Retrieved on 23 October 2013 The Education of a Libertarian 13 April 2009 Smith Harrison Burrows Roger 2021 Software Sovereignty and the Post Neoliberal Politics of Exit Theory Culture amp Society 38 6 143 166 doi 10 1177 0263276421999439 ISSN 0263 2764 S2CID 234839947 Baer Drake 8 April 2015 Peter Thiel says tech innovation is outpacing everything else for one simple reason BusinessInsider Archived from the original on 16 April 2020 Retrieved 27 September 2019 The Diversity Myth Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus The Independent Institute Archived from the original on 15 April 2015 Retrieved 7 June 2015 Bill Workman Chronicle Peninsula Bureau 11 October 1995 Stanford President Condemns Opinion Piece Former students ridiculed school in Wall Street Journal SFGate Archived from the original on 31 May 2016 Retrieved 29 May 2016 Taking aim at Stanford Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 29 May 2016 Bort Julie 25 October 2016 VC Peter Thiel and Zenefits CEO David Sacks apologize for writing a book that downplayed rape Archived 26 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian Retrieved 25 October 2016 Mac Ryan 7 June 2012 Ten Lessons from Peter Thiel s Class On Startups Forbes Archived from the original on 14 January 2017 Retrieved 8 September 2017 Zero to One Archived from the original on 3 June 2019 Retrieved 13 September 2014 Masters Blake Notes Essays Peter Thiel s CS183 Startup Stanford Spring 2012 Archived from the original on 20 December 2013 Retrieved 13 September 2014 Buhr Sarah 8 September 2014 Peter Thiel Tweets TechCrunch Archived from the original on 26 February 2019 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Peter Thiel makes 10M bet on associate in Arizona Senate race Politico Thompson Derek 24 September 2014 Peter Thiel s Zero to One Might Be the Best Business Book I ve Read The Atlantic Archived from the original on 21 May 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2017 Bibliography Packer George 2013 The Unwinding An Inner History of the New America Farrar Straus and Giroux ISBN 978 0374102418Further readingChafkin Max 2021 The Contrarian Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley s Pursuit of Power New York Penguin ISBN 978 1984878533External linksPeter Thiel at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Data from Wikidata Appearances on C SPAN Peter Thiel on Twitter Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Peter Thiel amp oldid 1127089726, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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