> Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, [[Palantir]] Technologies, and [[Founders Fund]], he was the first outside investor in [[Facebook]]. As of May 2022, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $7.19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, as a speechwriter for former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996. He co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998, serving as chief executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. > > After PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. In 2003, he launched [[Palantir]] Technologies, a big data analysis company, serving as its chairman since its inception. In 2005, he launched [[Founders Fund]] with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Earlier, Thiel became [[Facebook]]'s first outside investor when he acquired a 10.2% stake for $500,000 in August 2004. He sold the majority of his shares in [[Facebook]] for over $1 billion in 2012, but remains on the board of directors. He co-founded Valar Ventures in 2010; co-founded Mithril Capital, serving as investment committee chair, in 2012; and served as a part-time partner at Y Combinator from 2015 to 2017.Through the Thiel Foundation, Thiel governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship, and funds non-profit research into artificial intelligence, life extension, and seasteading. In 2016, Thiel confirmed that he had funded Hulk Hogan in the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit because Gawker had previously outed Thiel as gay. The lawsuit eventually bankrupted Gawker and led to founder Nick Denton declaring bankruptcy. Thiel is a conservative libertarian who has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes. > > [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter%20Thiel)