Peter Thiel
PayPal co-founder, Palantir co-founder and first outside investor in Facebook
- Age
- 59 yrs
- Birthday in 339 days
- Works listed
- 1
- Book
- Honours
- 0
- Awards & distinctions
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Peter Thiel is a German-American entrepreneur and investor who co-founded PayPal and the data-analytics company Palantir. His $500,000 investment made him Facebook’s first outside investor. He founded Founders Fund, wrote Zero to One and is a prominent conservative political donor.
Biography
Background
Thiel was born in Frankfurt and moved to the United States as a child. He studied philosophy and law at Stanford, where he founded The Stanford Review, and worked as a lawyer and derivatives trader.
PayPal
In 1998 he co-founded Confinity with Max Levchin and others; it merged with Elon Musk’s X.com to form PayPal. Thiel was CEO when eBay bought it in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Investor
In 2004 he invested $500,000 in Facebook. He co-founded Palantir in 2003 and Founders Fund in 2005, backing SpaceX, Airbnb and others. The Thiel Fellowship pays young people to skip college and build companies.
Politics and writing
Thiel funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker, supported Donald Trump in 2016 and backed politicians including JD Vance. His book Zero to One (2014) argues start-ups should create monopolies through innovation.
Timeline
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1967
Born in Frankfurt, West Germany
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1998
Co-founds Confinity
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2002
eBay buys PayPal
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2003
Co-founds Palantir
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2004
Invests in Facebook
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2005
Founds Founders Fund
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2011
Thiel Fellowship
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2014
Zero to One
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2016
Speaks at the Republican convention
Notable works
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2014
Zero to One Book
With Blake Masters.
Did you know?
-
1
He is a former chess master.
-
2
He holds New Zealand citizenship too.
-
3
He was on Facebook’s board from 2005 to 2022.
Connections
Related people
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Max Levchin
Technology · Ukrainian-born PayPal co-founder and CEO of Affirm
PayPal co-founder
-
Elon Musk
Technology · CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest person
Merged X.com into PayPal
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Reid Hoffman
Technology · Co-founder of LinkedIn and influential Silicon Valley investor
PayPal colleague
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Mark Zuckerberg
Technology · Co-founder and CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta
Early investor
Also born on 11 October
-
Amitabh Bachchan
Film & TV · Actor, film producer and host of Kaun Banega Crorepati
1942
-
Jayaprakash Narayan
Politics & Leadership · Freedom fighter who led the movement against the Emergency
1902
-
Michael Stonebraker
Science · Database researcher behind Ingres and Postgres
1943
-
Dana Scott
Science · Logician who gave programming languages a mathematical meaning
1932
Frequently asked
Who is Peter Thiel?
Peter Thiel is a German-American entrepreneur and investor who co-founded PayPal and the data-analytics company Palantir. His $500,000 investment made him Facebook’s first outside investor. He founded Founders Fund, wrote Zero to One and is a prominent conservative political donor.
How old is Peter Thiel?
Peter Thiel is 59 years old, born on 11 October 1967 in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Where is Peter Thiel from?
Peter Thiel was born in Frankfurt, West Germany.
What is Peter Thiel known for?
Peter Thiel is best known for Co-founding PayPal and Palantir; Founders Fund; Facebook investment; Zero to One; Thiel Fellowship.
References
- Peter Thiel — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Peter Thiel — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Peter Thiel — IMDb. IMDb. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Peter Thiel — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Peter Thiel (Q705525) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Peter Thiel”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Peter Thiel.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/peter-thiel
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