• Billionaire Peter Thiel has gained a reputation as one of Silicon Valley’s most controversial figures.
• The co-founder of PayPal has had a successful career in venture capital.
• Known as connectors, he advised such names as JD Vance and Sam Altman.

like many billionairesPeter Thiel is already benefiting from Donald Trump’s second presidential victory.

Following the election, his net worth hit a record high of $14 billion on Friday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The election results were also a win for the venture capitalist on a more personal level.

Conservative and early Trump supporter influenced rise Vice President J.D. Vance — and a big reason why the Ohio politician is second on the list.

Thiel and other Silicon Valley elites called Trump repeatedly, imploring him to choose Vance as vice president; He hoped he would create startup-friendly policies and cut regulations. Washington Post reported. He played a pivotal role in turning Vance, once a never-Trumper, into a MAGA Republican.

Relationship with Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal palantirand Vance goes back to at least 2011, when Thiel visited Yale Law School, where Vance was a student. Praising Thiel’s Christianity, Vance said: in the name The speech in which he discussed his race for success as “the highlight of my time at Yale Law School.”

Thiel continued to support the future politician by writing a blurb for Vance’s 2016 book “Hillbilly Elegy” and hired Vance to work in his office. VC firm Mithril Capitaland investing in Vance’s own venture fund, Narya Capital.

It has funded Vance’s campaign, pouring at least $15 million into his 2022 senatorial bid, according to its data. Open Secretsand helping him get an endorsement from Trump following a 2021 Mar-a-Lago meeting where he introduced the two. The New York Times reported.

Even though he didn’t Contributing financially to the 2024 presidential race – “An extra $1 million or $10 million doesn’t make any difference” for Trump, he said. reportedly He called Trump a “scumbag”; He was among Trump’s early supporters in Silicon Valley, endorsing him in 2016, speaking at the Republican National Convention that year, donating $1.25 million to pro-Trump groups and serving as a member of his transition team.

With Vance on the ticket and Trump-Vance winning, Thiel has secured his position as a conservative influencer and one of tech’s most powerful political players.

Don of PayPal Mafia

Thiel was known as a connector and mentor in Silicon Valley long before connecting Trump and Vance.

Like many of Tech’s early founders, he went to Stanford, where he earned a law degree. While he was a university student, he began to develop a reputation for his oppositional views. He was one of the founders in 1987 Stanford ReviewA student publication dedicated to “presenting alternative perspectives” that manifests itself in a primarily conservative bent. The first crackdowns were aimed at political correctness on campus.

Thiel, who worked as a lawyer and businessman for a short time, stepped into the technology scene as one of the founders of PayPal in 1998. There he earned the nickname “don”. PayPal MafiaOne of tech’s most influential groups, including Elon Musk, Keith Rabois, David Sacks and Reid Hoffman.

This is what first made him rich. It made about $100 million when it went public. Bloomberg predictions. His wealth grew thanks to his early investments in Facebook (he was the first outside investor), LinkedIn, and Yelp, and his role as co-founder of Palantir, a big data company and frequent federal government partner.

In 2005, he co-founded the VC fund Founders Fund, which invested in SpaceX and Airbnb and of which he is still a partner. He also co-founded VC firms Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital.

Thiel’s sphere of influence in Silicon Valley expanded as he became richer. He became known as a mentor by starting the Thiel Fellowship, which gives $100,000 and two years of support to founders under the age of 20. His most well-known mentors, though not Thiel Fellows, include: Mark ZuckerbergTrump contact and Sam Altman. With the latter, he is interested in longevity and is reportedly signing up to be cryogenically frozen and adapting an anti-aging routine.

Conservative kingmaker

His personal politics and oppositional streak also defined Thiel and set him apart from others. largely Democratic Bay Area.

A self-described “libertarian,” Thiel has written extensively about his political beliefs. piece Those who opposed affirmative action in the 1990s.

“I am against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives and the ideology that the death of every individual is inevitable,” he said. wrote In 2009.

Over the past two decades, he has spoken several times at events organized on behalf of the conservative and libertarian Federalist Society. He contributed Maritime Institutean attempt to create an independent, libertarian, floating nation.

he had too Fight with GawkerSome viewed this as an attack on freedom of expression. In 2007, the online publication wrote a story about the sexuality of gay Thiel. Nearly a decade later, it was revealed that Hulk Hogan spent nearly $10 million on lawsuits against Gawker, including a 2012 lawsuit that eventually led to the website’s collapse. (At that time Thiel characterized his fight against privacy violations, not against journalism.)

According to OpenSecrets, he had donated to conservative or libertarian politicians for years; More than $2 million was donated to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign, and millions more were donated to groups supporting Ted Cruz that same year.

Thiel’s support of Trump in 2016 cemented his status as tech’s most vocal conservative and caused friction with others in the tech world. Reed HastingsTrump, who was with Thiel on Facebook’s board of directors at the time, reportedly called Thiel’s support of Trump a “horribly bad decision.” Y Combiner, Where Thiel worked as a consultant to fire him.

By 2018, Thiel’s friction with the San Francisco tech bubble had spilled over. In a 2018 speech, he called Silicon Valley a “one-party state.” at Stanford. Shortly after he He escaped to Los Angeles.

While he didn’t donate to Trump in 2020, he solidified his reputation as a major GOP donor in 2022, supporting not only Vance but also losing Arizona senatorial candidate Blake Masters, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman and more than a dozen other Conservative Party members. He supported . candidates.

It remains to be seen what Thiel’s relationship with Trump will be like now that Vance is in the White House. But he proved that he was the opposing point of view was correct, at least this time.

Additional reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Jyoti Mann.