Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist, political activist, and author. It was ranked No. 4 on the Forbes Midas List of 2014, with a net worth of $ 2.2 billion and No. 246 on the Forbes 400 in 2016, with a net worth of $ 2.7 billion. Thiel was born in Frankfurt and has German citizenship. He moved with his family to the United States as a baby and spent a portion of his education in Africa before returning to the United States. He studied philosophy at Stanford University, graduating with a BA in 1989. He moved to Stanford Law School and received his JD in 1992. After graduation, he worked as a judicial officer for Judge James Larry Edmondson and a securities attorney furniture for Sullivan & Cromwell. He then co-founded PayPal in 1999 and served as the chief executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $ 1.5 billion. After the sale of PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund. He launched Palantir Technologies, an analytical software company, in 2004 and continued to serve as president until 2017. Its Founder Fund, a venture capital company, was launched in 2005 along with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Previously, Thiel became Facebook's first external investor when it acquired a 10.2% share of $ 500,000 in August 2004. It sold most of its shares on Facebook for more than $ 1 billion in 2012 but remains on the board of directors. He also co-founded Valar Ventures in 2010 and acted as its president, co-founded Mithril Capital, of which he is chairman of the investment committee in 2012, and has served as a partner of Y Combinator since 2015.