{"id":"peter-thiel","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/peter-thiel","language":"en","name":"Peter Thiel","name_en":"Peter Thiel","name_ne":null,"description":"German-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (born 1967)","headline":"German-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (born 1967)","also_known_as":[],"summary":"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.","summary_more":["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,…"],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"11 October 1967","date":"1967-10-11"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Frankfurt","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1794"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"New Zealand","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q664","start":"2011-03-30"},{"text":"Germany","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q183"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"financier","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1979607"},{"text":"computer scientist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q82594"},{"text":"banker","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q806798"},{"text":"entrepreneur","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131524"},{"text":"chess player","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10873124"},{"text":"writer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q36180"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P106"}},{"key":"party","label":"Political party","values":[{"text":"Republican Party","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29468"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P102"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"Stanford Law School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8012895"},{"text":"Stanford University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41506"},{"text":"San Mateo High School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7414915"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P69"}},{"key":"spouse","label":"Spouse","values":[{"text":"Matt Danzeisen","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q136908316","start":"2017"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P26"}},{"key":"positions","label":"Positions held","values":[{"text":"board of directors member (2005–2022)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55168644","start":"2005-04","end":"2022-05-25"},{"text":"board of directors member (since 2003)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55168644","start":"2003"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P39"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Frank Schirrmacher Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23783980","date":"2021"},{"text":"Axel Springer Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q31838295","date":"2026"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P166"}},{"key":"x","label":"X (Twitter)","values":[{"text":"peterthiel","url":"https://x.com/peterthiel"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P2002"}},{"key":"facebook","label":"Facebook","values":[{"text":"sittingbournerugbyclub","url":"https://www.facebook.com/sittingbournerugbyclub"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P2013"}},{"key":"linkedin","label":"LinkedIn","values":[{"text":"peterthiel","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterthiel/"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525#P6634"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525","https://x.com/peterthiel","https://www.facebook.com/sittingbournerugbyclub","https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterthiel/"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Peter Thiel born?","a":"Peter Thiel was born on 11 October 1967 in Frankfurt."},{"q":"What positions has Peter Thiel held?","a":"Positions held by Peter Thiel include: board of directors member (2005–2022); board of directors member (since 2003)."},{"q":"Where did Peter Thiel study?","a":"Peter Thiel was educated at Stanford Law School, Stanford University, San Mateo High School."}],"related":[{"name":"Shantanu Narayen","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/shantanu-narayen"},{"name":"Muhtar Kent","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/muhtar-kent"},{"name":"Byron Trott","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/byron-trott"},{"name":"Ram Shriram","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/ram-shriram"},{"name":"Nathan Blecharczyk","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/nathan-blecharczyk"},{"name":"Joe Gebbia","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/joe-gebbia"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/peter-thiel-9c0621ae88.jpg","width":500,"height":658,"license":"CC BY-SA 3.0","credit":"Gage Skidmore","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Thiel_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Peter Thiel","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q705525","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q705525","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Peter Thiel by Gage Skidmore.jpg by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Thiel_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Peter Thiel, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Peter Thiel by Gage Skidmore.jpg — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0.","cite":"\"Peter Thiel\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/peter-thiel. Retrieved 5 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T11:28:20Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/peter-thiel","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/peter-thiel","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/peter-thiel?lang=ne"}}