Peter Thiel

Described as

German-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (born 1967)

Other names

Peter Andreas Thiel, Peter A. Thiel

Born

October 11, 1967 · 3 references

Born in

Frankfurt · 4 references

Citizen of

New Zealand (2011–) · 1 reference; Germany · 1 reference; United States

Occupation

banker · 1 reference; computer scientist; entrepreneur · 2 references; writer · 1 reference; investor · 1 reference; manager · 1 reference

Positions held

board of directors member (2003–) · 2 references

Political party

Republican Party

Worked for

Stanford University

Education

Stanford Law School; Stanford University; San Mateo High School · 1 reference

Member of

Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Meetings · 1 reference; Students for Liberty · 1 reference

Sport

chess

Known for

The Stanford Review · 1 reference

Awards

Frank Schirrmacher Award (2021); Axel Springer Award (2026) · 1 reference

Field

investment · 1 reference; social networking service · 1 reference; venture capital · 1 reference; activism · 1 reference; Social Network Concepts · 1 reference

Spouse

Matt Danzeisen (2017–) · 1 reference

Father

Klaus Friedrich Thiel

Lived in

Cleveland (1969–) · 1 reference; Foster City (1977–) · 1 reference; South-West Africa · 1 reference

Wikipedias with a page

53

Wikidata item Q705525 (wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525), public domain (CC0). Copied November 13, 2026.

Peter Andreas Thiel ( ; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and conservative political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund, he was also the first outside investor in Facebook. As of October 2026, Forbes estimated Thiel's net worth at US$37.7 billion.
Born in Germany, Thiel moved to the US with his parents when he was an infant. In 1971, his family moved to South African-occupied Namibia, before moving back to the US in 1977. After graduating from Stanford University, Thiel worked as a clerk, a securities lawyer, a speechwriter, and a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996 and co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998. He was PayPal's chief executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Thiel then founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. He launched Palantir in 2003, a big data analysis company, and has been its chairman since then. In August 2004, Thiel became Facebook's first outside investor by acquiring a 10.2% stake in the company for $500,000. In 2005, he launched Founders Fund with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. He co-founded Valar Ventures in 2010, founded Thiel Capital in 2011, co-founded Mithril Capital in 2012, was investment committee chair in 2012, and was a part-time partner at Y Combinator from 2015 to 2017. He was granted New Zealand citizenship in 2011, which became controversial when made public in 2017. Through the Thiel Foundation, he governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship.
Thiel has been variously portrayed as a conservative libertarian and democracy-skeptic authoritarian, and he has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes. Commentators and scholars frequently examine his views, particularly his political and ideological positions. He has been described as "a political theologian operating at the heart of the Silicon Valley" and the "intellectual architect of Silicon Valley's contemporary ethos".

Born, in its opening lines

October 11, 1967

From the Wikipedia article “Peter Thiel” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel), by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Copied November 13, 2026; not changed.