Peter Thiel
Encyclopedia
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate
, venture capitalist, and hedge fund
manager. With Elon Musk
and Max Levchin
, Thiel co-founded PayPal
and was its CEO. He currently serves as president of Clarium Capital
, a global macro
hedge fund with under $700 million in assets under management
, and a managing partner in The Founders Fund
, a $275 million venture capital fund that he launched with Ken Howery
and Luke Nosek
in 2005. He was an early investor in Facebook
, the popular social-networking site, and sits on the company’s board of directors. Thiel was ranked #365 on the Forbes 400
in 2010, with a net worth of US$1.5 billion. However, this number now underestimates his wealth as his Facebook share alone, at a 2010 valuation, is worth US$1.7 billion. Peter Thiel lives in San Francisco
, California
.
, and raised in Foster City, California
, Thiel was a US-rated Chess Master
and one of the highest ranked under-21 players in the country. He studied 20th century philosophy as an undergraduate at Stanford University
. An avowed libertarian
, he founded The Stanford Review
, now the university's main conservative/libertarian newspaper. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Stanford in 1989 and acquired a J.D.
from Stanford Law School
in 1992.
Thiel clerked for Judge J.L. Edmondson
of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. From 1993 to 1996, he traded derivatives
for Credit Suisse Group. He founded Thiel Capital Management, a multistrategy fund, in 1996. After co-founding PayPal, Thiel took the company public on February 15, 2002, and sold it to eBay
for $1.5
billion later that year. His 3.7 percent stake in PayPal was worth approximately $55 million at the time of the acquisition. Immediately after the sale, Thiel launched a global macro hedge fund, Clarium, pursuing a global macro strategy. In 2005, Clarium was honored as global macro fund of the year by both MarHedge
and Absolute Return
, two trade magazines. Thiel’s approach to investing became the subject of a chapter in Steve Drobny’s book, Inside the House of Money. Thiel successfully bet that the US dollar would weaken in 2003, and gained significant returns betting that the dollar and energy would rally in 2005.
In 2004, well before the financial crisis of 2007–2010 bore him out in general terms, Thiel spoke of the dot-com bubble
of 2000 having migrated, in effect, into a growing bubble in the financial sector. He specified General Electric
, with its large financing arm, and WalMart as vulnerable. At the same time, he was "always talking about a real estate bubble." To illustrate, in 2004, he reported having backed away from buying Martha Stewart
's Manhattan
duplex for $7 million in the winter of 2003-2004. While the apartment did sell in 2004 for $6.65 million to another buyer, it was on the market but unsold in early 2010 at $15.9 million, and later at the reduced price of $13.9 million.
In late 2004, Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment
in Facebook
for 10.2% of the company. In addition to Facebook, Thiel has made early-stage investments in numerous startups (personally or through his venture capital fund), including Booktrack
, Slide
, LinkedIn
, Friendster
, Rapleaf
, Geni.com
, Yammer
, Yelp, Inc., Powerset
, Practice Fusion
, Vator
, Palantir Technologies
, and IronPort
. Slide, LinkedIn, Yelp, Geni.com, and Yammer were founded by Thiel's former colleagues at PayPal: Slide by Max Levchin
, Linkedin by Reid Hoffman
, Yelp by Jeremy Stoppelman, Geni.com, Yammer by David Sacks and Xero
by Rod Drury
. Fortune magazine reports that PayPal alumni have founded or invested in dozens of startups with an aggregate value of around $30 billion. In Silicon Valley circles, Thiel is colloquially referred to as the "Don of the PayPal Mafia", as noted in the Fortune magazine
article. Thiel's views on management are highly regarded, especially his famous observation that start-up success is highly correlated with low CEO pay.
Thiel is an occasional commentator on CNBC
, having appeared numerous times on both Closing Bell
with Maria Bartiromo
, and Squawk Box
with Becky Quick. He has been interviewed twice by Charlie Rose
on PBS. In 2006, he won the Herman Lay Award for Entrepreneurship. 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. On November 7, 2009, Thiel was awarded an honorary degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquin
Thiel's cultural pursuits have included executive production of “Thank You for Smoking”, a 2005 feature film based on Christopher Buckley's 1994 novel of the same name. Thiel is the co-author (with David O. Sacks
, who produced TYFS) of the 1995 book The Diversity Myth: 'Multiculturalism' and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, which "drew a sharp rebuttal from then-Stanford Provost (and later President George W. Bush
's National Security Advisor
) Condoleezza Rice
." He has contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, First Things, Forbes, and Policy Review
, the journal published by the Hoover Institution
, on whose board he sits.
In September 2006, Thiel announced that he would donate $3.5 million to foster anti-aging research through the Methuselah Mouse Prize foundation. 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. 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."
In May 2007, Thiel provided half of the $400,000 matching funds for the annual Singularity Challenge donation drive.
On April 15, 2008, Thiel pledged $500,000 to the new Seasteading
Institute, 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". This was followed in February 2010 by a subsequent grant of $250,000, and an additional $100,000 in matching funds.
On September 29, 2010, Thiel said he had created a new fellowship called the Thiel Fellowship, which will award $100,000 each to 20 people under 20 years old, in order to spur them to quit college and create their own ventures.
Thiel is a supporter of the Committee to Protect Journalists
, which promotes the right of journalists to report the news freely without fear of reprisal.
, a controversial group of influential business and government leaders who meet annually behind closed doors under a media blackout to discuss world issues.
in San Francisco. 'He believes in open markets and that self-interest can be harnessed in useful and productive ways,' sa[id] Sonia Arrison, the institute's director of technology studies."
When asked about his political beliefs in a 2006 United Press International
interview, Thiel stated, "Well, I was pretty libertarian
when I started [in business]. I'm way libertarian now." In December 2007, he endorsed Ron Paul
for President
.
In a two-part article for the Cato Institute, Thiel wrote: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." Thiel later clarified several of his initial statements in a follow-up essay, stating that, "While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better."
Peter Thiel professes that he is unable to engage in what he terms “unacceptable compromise politics," further spelling out his views in a piece for the Oslo Freedom Forum
: "We tend to like a government very much when we believe we’re among its net winners. That makes it very hard to think clearly about whether any of its laws are just or unjust. And because power corrupts, any state unchecked by vigorous public scrutiny and a free press will attempt to become the judge in its own cause and the intermediary of all human interaction."
In 2009, it was reported that Thiel helped fund college student James O'Keefe
's "Taxpayers Clearing House" video - a satirical look at the politics behind the Wall Street bailout. O'Keefe went on to produce the
ACORN undercover sting videos
.
Thiel, who is openly gay, has also supported gay-rights causes such as the American Foundation for Equal Rights
and GOProud
.
In 2010, Thiel supported Meg Whitman
, who as CEO of eBay had purchased PayPal from Thiel and his co-founders and investors, in her unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California
. He contributed the maximum allowable $25,900 to the Whitman campaign.
In 2011, Thiel was reported as having given $1.25 million to the Seasteading Institute, a group seeking to build sovereign nations on artificial islands in international waters ("seasteading
"). He previously gained attention when he gave the group $500,000 in 2008.
, Peter Thiel is played by actor Wallace Langham
. The film depicts him making the $500,000 angel investment in Facebook
.
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
, venture capitalist, and hedge fund
Hedge fund
A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
manager. With Elon Musk
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
and Max Levchin
Max Levchin
Max Rafael Levchin is a Ukrainian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur widely known as one of the co-founders and for his role as the former chief technology officer of PayPal....
, Thiel co-founded PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
and was its CEO. He currently serves as president of Clarium Capital
Clarium Capital
Clarium Capital Management LLC is an American investment management and hedge fund company that pursues a global macro strategy, that Peter Thiel founded in San Francisco in 2002...
, a global macro
Global macro
Global Macro is defined as the strategy of investing, on a large scale, around the world using economic theory to justify the decision making process...
hedge fund with under $700 million in assets under management
Assets under management
Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...
, and a managing partner in The Founders Fund
The Founders Fund
Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm which invests at all stages in companies with revolutionary technologies. The firm’s six partners, Peter Thiel, Sean Parker, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Bruce Gibney, and Brian Singerman have been founders of or early investors in numerous...
, a $275 million venture capital fund that he launched with Ken Howery
Ken Howery
Ken Howery is a co-founder and managing partner at Founders Fund.Howery graduated from Stanford University in 1998 with a B.A. in Economics. He was a co-founder of PayPal and served as the company's first CFO from 1998 until 2002. His partner within this Paypal project was Peter Thiel at Thiel...
and Luke Nosek
Luke Nosek
Luke Nosek is an American entrepreneur of Polish descent.Nosek received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During college in the summer of 1995, he cofounded SponsorNet New Media, Inc., along with fellow UIUC students Max Levchin and Scott Banister...
in 2005. He was an early investor in Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, the popular social-networking site, and sits on the company’s board of directors. Thiel was ranked #365 on the Forbes 400
Forbes 400
The Forbes 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by Forbes Magazine magazine of the wealthiest 400 Americans, ranked by net worth. The list is published annually in September, and 2010 marks the 29th issue. The 400 was started by Malcom Forbes in 1982 and treats those in the list like...
in 2010, with a net worth of US$1.5 billion. However, this number now underestimates his wealth as his Facebook share alone, at a 2010 valuation, is worth US$1.7 billion. Peter Thiel lives in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Life and career
Born in Frankfurt am Main, West GermanyWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, and raised in Foster City, California
Foster City, California
Foster City is an affluent planned city located in San Mateo County, California, 94404. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 30,567. Forbes ranked Foster City #10 on their 2009 list of America's Top 25 Towns to Live Well. Money has also recognized Foster City multiple times as...
, Thiel was a US-rated Chess Master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....
and one of the highest ranked under-21 players in the country. He studied 20th century philosophy as an undergraduate at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. An avowed libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, he founded The Stanford Review
The Stanford Review
The Stanford Review is a libertarian student-run newspaper that serves Stanford University in Stanford, California. It was founded in 1987 by Peter Thiel and Norman Book. It is published and distributed without charge to the Stanford community periodically during the academic year.-Notable former...
, now the university's main conservative/libertarian newspaper. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Stanford in 1989 and acquired a J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
in 1992.
Thiel clerked for Judge J.L. Edmondson
James Larry Edmondson
-Education and early career:Born in Jasper, Georgia, Edmondson received a B.A. from Emory University in 1968, a J.D. from the University of Georgia in 1971, and an M.L. in Judicial Process from the University of Virginia in 1990....
of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. From 1993 to 1996, he traded derivatives
Derivative (finance)
A derivative instrument is a contract between two parties that specifies conditions—in particular, dates and the resulting values of the underlying variables—under which payments, or payoffs, are to be made between the parties.Under U.S...
for Credit Suisse Group. He founded Thiel Capital Management, a multistrategy fund, in 1996. After co-founding PayPal, Thiel took the company public on February 15, 2002, and sold it to eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
for $1.5
billion later that year. His 3.7 percent stake in PayPal was worth approximately $55 million at the time of the acquisition. Immediately after the sale, Thiel launched a global macro hedge fund, Clarium, pursuing a global macro strategy. In 2005, Clarium was honored as global macro fund of the year by both MarHedge
MarHedge
MARHEDGE is a semi-monthly financial newsletter. It was first circulated in 1994, originally under the name HEDGE. The journal has also gone by the name Managed Account Reports LLC....
and Absolute Return
Absolute return
The absolute return or simply return is a measure of the gain or loss on an investment portfolio expressed as a percentage of invested capital. The adjective absolute is used to stress the distinction with the relative return measures often used by long-only equity funds, i.e...
, two trade magazines. Thiel’s approach to investing became the subject of a chapter in Steve Drobny’s book, Inside the House of Money. Thiel successfully bet that the US dollar would weaken in 2003, and gained significant returns betting that the dollar and energy would rally in 2005.
In 2004, well before the financial crisis of 2007–2010 bore him out in general terms, Thiel spoke of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
of 2000 having migrated, in effect, into a growing bubble in the financial sector. He specified General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, with its large financing arm, and WalMart as vulnerable. At the same time, he was "always talking about a real estate bubble." To illustrate, in 2004, he reported having backed away from buying Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
's Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
duplex for $7 million in the winter of 2003-2004. While the apartment did sell in 2004 for $6.65 million to another buyer, it was on the market but unsold in early 2010 at $15.9 million, and later at the reduced price of $13.9 million.
In late 2004, Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
in Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
for 10.2% of the company. In addition to Facebook, Thiel has made early-stage investments in numerous startups (personally or through his venture capital fund), including Booktrack
Booktrack
Booktrack is the creator of the eponymous ereader technology that merges sound with text to create an immersive reading experience. mixes music, sound effects, and ambient sound to provide an immersive multimedia reading experience. The company was founded and maintains offices in Auckland, New...
, Slide
Slide.com
Slide, Inc., operator of the Slide.com website, is a Web 2.0 company founded by Max Levchin and based in San Francisco, California. Originally formed to make photo sharing software for social networking services such as MySpace, the company achieved its greatest success as the largest developer of...
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
, Friendster
Friendster
Friendster is a social gaming site that is based in Malaysia, KL. The company now operates mainly from the three Asian countries namely in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore....
, Rapleaf
Rapleaf
Rapleaf is a Web 2.0 start-up company based in San Francisco, California founded by Auren Hoffman and Manish Shah. Acting primarily a B2B firm, Rapleaf's consumer information technology helps businesses understand their customers so they can personalize experiences in real time, segment customers,...
, Geni.com
Geni.com
Geni is a genealogy and social networking website. Launched on January 16, 2007, the Web 2.0 company aims to create a family tree of the world. While family profiles are private, Geni’s mission is to create a shared family tree of common ancestors...
, Yammer
Yammer
Yammer is an enterprise social network service that was launched in September 2008. Unlike Twitter, which is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups, making it an example...
, Yelp, Inc., Powerset
Powerset (company)
Powerset is a Microsoft owned company based in San Francisco, California that, in 2006, was developing a natural language search engine for the Internet....
, Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion is a free, web-based electronic health record company Co-founded in 2005 by Ryan Howard and Alan Wong. Based in San Francisco, California the SaaS startup provides advertising-supported records management and related services to doctors and medical practices...
, Vator
Vator
Vator is a community-based website focused on the business of funding and building emerging technologies for startups. Vator operates a database of dynamic, private-company profiles and a newsroom, covering technology and Internet trends through analysis and interviews...
, Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia, New York City and Covent Garden, London, is a software company that produces the Palantir Government and Palantir Finance platforms...
, and IronPort
IronPort
IronPort Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Bruno, California, was a company that designed and sold products and services that protect enterprises against Internet threats. It was best known for IronPort AntiSpam, the SenderBase email reputation service, and email security appliances...
. Slide, LinkedIn, Yelp, Geni.com, and Yammer were founded by Thiel's former colleagues at PayPal: Slide by Max Levchin
Max Levchin
Max Rafael Levchin is a Ukrainian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur widely known as one of the co-founders and for his role as the former chief technology officer of PayPal....
, Linkedin by Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman
Reid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...
, Yelp by Jeremy Stoppelman, Geni.com, Yammer by David Sacks and Xero
Xero (software)
Xero is an online accounting software product for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as for personal finance. The product is sold by subscription requiring the payment of a monthly fee...
by Rod Drury
Rod Drury
Rod Drury is a technology entrepreneur from Wellington, New Zealand. He is currently CEO of the online accounting software company Xero, and a key player in the Pacific Fibre project.- Professional history :...
. Fortune magazine reports that PayPal alumni have founded or invested in dozens of startups with an aggregate value of around $30 billion. In Silicon Valley circles, Thiel is colloquially referred to as the "Don of the PayPal Mafia", as noted in the Fortune magazine
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
article. Thiel's views on management are highly regarded, especially his famous observation that start-up success is highly correlated with low CEO pay.
Thiel is an occasional commentator on CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
, having appeared numerous times on both Closing Bell
Closing Bell
Closing Bell can refer to two CNBC programs, the original Closing Bell on CNBC , and European Closing Bell on CNBC Europe.-About the show:...
with Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo is an American television journalist, magazine columnist and author of three books. Bartiromo is a native of New York and attended New York University. She worked at CNN for five years before joining CNBC television...
, and Squawk Box
Squawk Box
Squawk Box is a business news television program which airs at breakfast time on the CNBC network. The program is currently co-hosted by Joe Kernen, Rebecca Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Since debuting in 1995, the show has spawned a number of versions across CNBC's international channels, many of...
with Becky Quick. He has been interviewed twice by Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
on PBS. In 2006, he won the Herman Lay Award for Entrepreneurship. In 2007, he was honored as a Young Global leader by the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
as one of the 250 most distinguished leaders age 40 and under. On November 7, 2009, Thiel was awarded an honorary degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquin
Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Universidad Francisco Marroquín is a private, secular, university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. According to the school's website, "the mission of Universidad Francisco Marroquín is to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal and economic principles of a sociey of free and responsible persons."...
Thiel's cultural pursuits have included executive production of “Thank You for Smoking”, a 2005 feature film based on Christopher Buckley's 1994 novel of the same name. Thiel is the co-author (with David O. Sacks
David O. Sacks
David Oliver Sacks is the founder and CEO of Web 2.0 companies Geni, Inc. and Yammer, Inc..-Biography:Sacks attended the Memphis University School in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1994 and received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School...
, who produced TYFS) of the 1995 book The Diversity Myth: 'Multiculturalism' and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, which "drew a sharp rebuttal from then-Stanford Provost (and later President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's National Security Advisor
National Security Advisor
A National Security Advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. He or she is not usually a member of the Cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils....
) Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
." He has contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, First Things, Forbes, and Policy Review
Policy Review
Policy Review is one of America's leading conservative journals. It was founded by the Heritage Foundation and was for many years the foundation's flagship publication. In 2001, the publication was acquired by the Stanford University-based Hoover Institution, though it maintains its office on...
, the journal published by the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, on whose board he sits.
Philanthropy
In February 2006, Thiel provided $100,000 of matching funds to back the Singularity Challenge donation drive of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, he joined the Institute's advisory board and participated in the May 2006 Singularity Summit at Stanford as well as at the 2011 Summit held in New York City.In September 2006, Thiel announced that he would donate $3.5 million to foster anti-aging research through the Methuselah Mouse Prize foundation. 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. 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."
In May 2007, Thiel provided half of the $400,000 matching funds for the annual Singularity Challenge donation drive.
On April 15, 2008, Thiel pledged $500,000 to the new Seasteading
Seasteading
Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territories claimed by the governments of any standing nation....
Institute, directed by Patri Friedman
Patri Friedman
Patri Friedman is an American activist and theorist of political economy.- Background :Friedman grew up in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of Upper Merion Area High School, class of 1994, where he went by the name Patri Forwalter-Friedman. He graduated from Harvey Mudd College in...
, whose mission is "to establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems". This was followed in February 2010 by a subsequent grant of $250,000, and an additional $100,000 in matching funds.
On September 29, 2010, Thiel said he had created a new fellowship called the Thiel Fellowship, which will award $100,000 each to 20 people under 20 years old, in order to spur them to quit college and create their own ventures.
Thiel is a supporter of the Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
, which promotes the right of journalists to report the news freely without fear of reprisal.
Bilderberg Group
Thiel is listed as a member of the Steering Committee of The Bilderberg GroupBilderberg Group
The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from...
, a controversial group of influential business and government leaders who meet annually behind closed doors under a media blackout to discuss world issues.
Politics
In 2004, it was reported that Thiel, "a libertarian, advise[d] several free-market think tanks, including the Pacific Research InstitutePacific Research Institute
The Pacific Research Institute , or officially the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, is a California-based free-market think tank founded in 1979 whose stated vision is the promotion of "the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility"...
in San Francisco. 'He believes in open markets and that self-interest can be harnessed in useful and productive ways,' sa[id] Sonia Arrison, the institute's director of technology studies."
When asked about his political beliefs in a 2006 United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
interview, Thiel stated, "Well, I was pretty libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
when I started [in business]. I'm way libertarian now." In December 2007, he endorsed Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
for President
Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008
The 2008 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. presidential election...
.
In a two-part article for the Cato Institute, Thiel wrote: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." Thiel later clarified several of his initial statements in a follow-up essay, stating that, "While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better."
Peter Thiel professes that he is unable to engage in what he terms “unacceptable compromise politics," further spelling out his views in a piece for the Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum is a conference about human rights first held in May 2009 in Oslo, Norway. Founded by the Human Rights Foundation. According to Thor Halvorssen , "the Oslo Freedom Forum is an intimate gathering where leaders who are transforming the world present effective solutions and...
: "We tend to like a government very much when we believe we’re among its net winners. That makes it very hard to think clearly about whether any of its laws are just or unjust. And because power corrupts, any state unchecked by vigorous public scrutiny and a free press will attempt to become the judge in its own cause and the intermediary of all human interaction."
In 2009, it was reported that Thiel helped fund college student James O'Keefe
James O'Keefe
James E. O'Keefe III is a conservative American activist who has produced controversial audio and video recordings of public figures and workers in a variety of organizations...
's "Taxpayers Clearing House" video - a satirical look at the politics behind the Wall Street bailout. O'Keefe went on to produce the
ACORN undercover sting videos
ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy
The ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy refers to the news media and political uproar following the release of videos in 2009 purporting to show encounters between a young couple and workers in several offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now , where the ACORN...
.
Thiel, who is openly gay, has also supported gay-rights causes such as the American Foundation for Equal Rights
American Foundation for Equal Rights
The American Foundation for Equal Rights is a nonprofit organization created to support the plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a federal lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8 in California. AFER retained former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and David Boies The American Foundation for Equal...
and GOProud
GOProud
GOProud is an American tax exempt 527 organization representing conservative gays, lesbians, transgendered people, and their allies. GOProud advocates for small government conservatism at the level of federal public policy. GOProud was founded by Christopher R...
.
In 2010, Thiel supported Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman
Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman is an American business executive. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard. A native of Long Island, New York, she is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School...
, who as CEO of eBay had purchased PayPal from Thiel and his co-founders and investors, in her unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California
California gubernatorial election, 2010
The 2010 California gubernatorial election was held November 2, 2010 to elect the Governor of California. The primary elections were held on June 8, 2010. Because constitutional office holders in California are prohibited from serving more than two terms in the same office since 1990, incumbent...
. He contributed the maximum allowable $25,900 to the Whitman campaign.
In 2011, Thiel was reported as having given $1.25 million to the Seasteading Institute, a group seeking to build sovereign nations on artificial islands in international waters ("seasteading
Seasteading
Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territories claimed by the governments of any standing nation....
"). He previously gained attention when he gave the group $500,000 in 2008.
Depictions in media
In the film The Social NetworkThe Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
, Peter Thiel is played by actor Wallace Langham
Wallace Langham
James Wallace Langham II is an American actor. He currently plays the role of David Hodges in the American crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Film career:...
. The film depicts him making the $500,000 angel investment in Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
.
External links
- Thiel Foundation profile
- https://www.ufm.edu/cms/es/honorary-doctoral-degreesHonorary Doctoral Degrees, Universidad Francisco MarroquínUniversidad Francisco MarroquínUniversidad Francisco Marroquín is a private, secular, university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. According to the school's website, "the mission of Universidad Francisco Marroquín is to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal and economic principles of a sociey of free and responsible persons."...
] - Peter Thiel compares Silicon Valley bloggers to Al Qaeda
- Virtual Money on ITConversations.com - November 2004
- Peter Thiel - Friend of Liberty from the Advocates for Self-Government website
- Peter Thiel profile on Accelerating Future video, audio and gallery
- The Optimistic Thought Experiment essay by Peter Thiel published in Policy Review
- Bloomberg Markets profile of Thiel
- http://newmedia.ufm.edu/gsm/index.php/Listados:Peter_ThielAudiovisual Media, NewMedia Universidad Francisco MarroquínUniversidad Francisco MarroquínUniversidad Francisco Marroquín is a private, secular, university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. According to the school's website, "the mission of Universidad Francisco Marroquín is to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal and economic principles of a sociey of free and responsible persons."...
] - Can Entrepreneurs change the world?: Peter Thiel interviewed Luis Figueroa
- Crunchbase profile of Peter Thiel