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.

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. During that time, debates on identity politics and political correctness were ongoing. He studied philosophy at Stanford University. 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. Thiel excelled in mathematics and scored first in a California-wide mathematics competition while attending Bowditch Middle School in Foster City. Six firms ( Palantir Technologies, Valar Ventures, Mithril Capital, Lembas LLC, Rivendell LLC and Arda Capital) that he founded adopted names originating from Tolkien. Tolkien's works, stating as an adult that he had read The Lord of the Rings over ten times. Heinlein among his favorite authors, and a fan of J. Thiel played Dungeons & Dragons, was an avid reader of science fiction, with Isaac Asimov and Robert A. This experience instilled a distaste for uniformity and regimentation later reflected in his support for individualism and libertarianism. 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. Peter changed elementary schools seven times. īefore settling in Foster City, California, in 1977, the Thiels lived in South Africa and South West Africa (modern-day Namibia). Klaus then worked for various mining companies, creating an itinerant upbringing for Thiel and his younger brother, Patrick Michael Thiel. 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. Thiel was born in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, on 11 October 1967, to Klaus Friedrich Thiel and his wife Susanne Thiel. Thiel is a conservative libertarian who has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes. The lawsuit eventually bankrupted Gawker and led to founder Nick Denton declaring bankruptcy. Gawker lawsuit because Gawker had previously outed Thiel as gay. In 2016, Thiel confirmed that he had funded Hulk Hogan in the Bollea v. 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. 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. After the Fifth National Government intervened on his behalf, Thiel was controversially granted New Zealand citizenship in 2011 after spending 12 days in the country non-consecutively. He sold the majority of his shares in Facebook for over $1 billion in 2012 but remains on the board of directors.

Earlier, Thiel became Facebook's first outside investor when he acquired a 10.2% stake for $500,000 in August 2004. In 2005, he launched Founders Fund with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. In 2003, he launched Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, serving as its chairman since its inception. 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.Īfter PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, as a speechwriter for former U.S. As of June 2023, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $9.7 billion and was ranked 213th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. Peter Andreas Thiel ( / t iː l/ born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist.

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