Peter Thiel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Thiel
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Thiel in 2022
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| Born | 11 October 1967 Frankfurt, West Germany
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| Education | Stanford University (BA, JD) |
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| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) |
Matt Danzeisen
(m. 2017) |
Peter Andreas Thiel (born October 11, 1967) is an American businessman and investor. He is famous for co-founding PayPal and Palantir Technologies. He was also the very first outside investor in Facebook. As of May 2025, Forbes magazine estimated he was worth US$20.8 billion. This made him one of the richest people in the world.
After graduating from Stanford University, Thiel worked in law and finance. In 1998, he co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek. He served as its CEO until it was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
After PayPal, Thiel started several other successful companies. He founded Clarium Capital, an investment firm, and Palantir Technologies, a company that analyzes large amounts of data. In 2005, he launched Founders Fund, a firm that invests in new technology companies. He also co-founded other investment groups like Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital.
Thiel is known for his political activities and often supports conservative and libertarian causes. He was granted New Zealand citizenship in 2011. Through his Thiel Foundation, he supports new research and gives grants to young entrepreneurs.
Contents
Early Life and Schooling
Peter Thiel was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, on October 11, 1967. His family moved to the United States when he was one year old. Because his father's job as a chemical engineer involved working for mining companies, the family moved often. They lived in Ohio, South Africa, and Namibia before settling in Foster City, California, in 1977.
Thiel was a big fan of science fiction books and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. He has said he read The Lord of the Rings more than ten times. Many of his companies, like Palantir, Valar, and Mithril, are named after things from Tolkien's books.
In school, Thiel was excellent at math. He won a statewide math competition in California while in middle school. At San Mateo High School, he was the valedictorian of his class when he graduated in 1985.
Thiel went on to study philosophy at Stanford University. In 1987, he co-founded a conservative and libertarian student newspaper called The Stanford Review. After getting his first degree in 1989, he attended Stanford Law School and earned a law degree in 1992.
Career as an Entrepreneur
PayPal: A New Way to Pay
In 1998, Thiel and his friends Max Levchin and Luke Nosek started a company that would later become PayPal. They saw that paying for things online was difficult. Not all sellers could accept credit cards, and people often had to use cash or checks.
Thiel wanted to create a "digital wallet" to make online payments easy and secure. PayPal was launched in 1999. It allowed people to send money to each other using just an email address. This was a huge change in how people handled money online.
PayPal grew quickly, especially after it merged with Elon Musk's company, X.com. In 2002, PayPal became a public company and was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion. Thiel's share of the sale was worth about $55 million. Because many of PayPal's early employees went on to start other famous tech companies, they are often called the "PayPal Mafia".
Facebook's First Big Investor
In 2004, Thiel became the first major investor in a small social media company called Facebook. He invested $500,000 in exchange for a 10.2% share of the company and a seat on its board of directors. At the time, Facebook was valued at just under $5 million.
Thiel's investment was a big risk, but it paid off. He helped guide the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, as Facebook grew into a global giant. When Facebook went public in 2012, Thiel sold most of his shares for over $1 billion. He left Facebook's board of directors in 2022 after 17 years.
Palantir: A Big Data Company
In 2003, Thiel founded Palantir Technologies. The company is named after the seeing stones in The Lord of the Rings. Palantir specializes in big data analysis. This means it creates software that helps organizations like government agencies and large corporations find important patterns in huge amounts of information.
Thiel believed that the technology used at PayPal to fight online fraud could also be used to help with other problems, like fighting terrorism. Palantir's first investor was In-Q-Tel, the investment part of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The company grew to be very valuable, and Thiel remains its chairman.
Founders Fund: Investing in the Future
In 2005, Thiel started Founders Fund, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco. A venture capital firm invests money in new, promising companies to help them grow.
Founders Fund has invested in many well-known startups. These include SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, and the room-sharing service Airbnb. The fund also invested in LinkedIn, Spotify, and Stripe. Thiel's goal with Founders Fund is to support companies that are working on difficult technological problems that can change the world.
Political Ideas and Activities
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Thiel is a member of the Republican Party and describes himself as a conservative libertarian. Libertarians believe in personal freedom and limited government. He has donated money to many Republican and Libertarian candidates and causes.
In 2008, he supported Ron Paul for president. In 2016, he was a strong supporter of Donald Trump. He even spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention. After Trump won the election, Thiel was part of the team that helped prepare for the new presidency.
Thiel has also supported causes that promote free speech and protect journalists. He has donated over $1 million to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Helping Others and New Ideas
Thiel uses his foundation, the Thiel Foundation, to support causes he believes in. These often involve science, technology, and encouraging young people to think differently.
The Thiel Fellowship
In 2010, Thiel started the Thiel Fellowship. Each year, the program gives $100,000 to about 20 young people under the age of 23. The goal is to encourage them to leave college for two years to work on their own projects, like starting a business or doing scientific research.
Thiel believes that college is not always the best path for everyone. He wants to give talented young people a chance to pursue their big ideas without having to wait until after they graduate.
Research on Aging
Thiel is very interested in scientific research that could help people live longer, healthier lives. In 2006, he donated $3.5 million to support research on slowing down the aging process. He has given over $7 million to the Methuselah Mouse Prize foundation, which funds this type of research.
Personal Life
Thiel is a Christian and has spoken about how his faith influences his thinking. He grew up in an evangelical Christian home.
He is also a very skilled chess player. He started playing when he was six years old and became a Life Master, a high rank in the U.S. chess world. He no longer competes in tournaments.
In 2017, Thiel married his partner, Matt Danzeisen. They have two young daughters.
Books
The Diversity Myth
In 1995, Thiel co-wrote a book called The Diversity Myth. The book criticized some of the policies at universities like Stanford. Years later, Thiel apologized for some of the insensitive things he wrote in the book.
Zero to One
In 2014, Thiel published Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. The book is based on a class he taught at Stanford University about how to start a successful company.
In the book, Thiel argues that the best companies create something completely new. They don't just copy what other companies are doing. He says that true innovation is about going from "zero to one" (creating something new) instead of from "one to many" (making small improvements to something that already exists). The book became a bestseller and is popular with entrepreneurs.
See also
In Spanish: Peter Thiel para niños
