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10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md
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@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ updated: 2026-09-25
Peter Thiel (born October 11, 1967, in [[Frankfurt]], [[West Germany]]) is a German-born American billionaire investor and the central figure of the [[PayPal Mafia]], the informal network of founders and early executives of [[PayPal]] who went on to found or lead much of the subsequent generation of [[Silicon Valley]] companies. Thiel cofounded PayPal, founded the venture capital firm [[Founders Fund]], and cofounded and chairs the data-analytics and defense contractor [[Palantir Technologies]]. In 2006 he cofounded the secret society [[Dialog]] with [[Auren Hoffman]]. He is the most prominent documented financial patron of the neoreactionary philosopher [[Curtis Yarvin]], the founder of [[Neoreaction]] (NRx) and co-originator of the [[Dark Enlightenment]], and his political investments extended to funding the covert lawsuit that destroyed [[Gawker Media]] and bankrolling the U.S. Senate and subsequent vice-presidential campaigns of [[JD Vance]].[^1][^2][^3]
Across these activities Thiel has built a coordinated program for the privatization and concentration of state-adjacent capacity: payments (PayPal), intelligence and law-enforcement data integration (Palantir Technologies), elite convening (Dialog), and the ideological framework that argues this concentration is both desirable and inevitable (the Yarvin patronage and the neoreactionary current). The political donations placed figures aligned with the thesis (Vance, [[Blake Masters]]) inside the [[U.S. government]]. The set of activities is mutually reinforcing rather than a portfolio of separate bets.
Across these activities Thiel has built a coordinated program for the privatization and concentration of state-adjacent capacity: payments (PayPal), intelligence and law-enforcement data integration (Palantir Technologies), elite convening (Dialog), and the ideological framework that argues this concentration is both desirable and inevitable (the Yarvin patronage and the neoreactionary current). The political donations placed figures aligned with the thesis (Vance, [[Blake Masters]]) inside the [[United States|U.S. government]]. The set of activities is mutually reinforcing rather than a portfolio of separate bets.
### PayPal and the PayPal Mafia
@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ Thiel acknowledged the funding in a *Forbes* interview, framing it as retaliatio
### Political Investments: Vance, Masters, and Trump
Thiel's political activity moved from libertarian advocacy to direct electoral investment in the 2020s. He was the largest single donor to the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign of JD Vance in [[Ohio]], contributing approximately fifteen million dollars through a super PAC, and to the concurrent Senate campaign of Masters in [[Arizona]], who had served as president of [[Thiel Capital]] and as coauthor with Thiel of *Zero to One*. Vance won and, in 2024, was elected Vice President of the [[United States]] on the Republican ticket with [[Donald Trump]].[^2]
Thiel's political activity moved from libertarian advocacy to direct electoral investment in the 2020s. He was the largest single donor to the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign of JD Vance in [[Ohio]], contributing approximately fifteen million dollars through a super PAC, and to the concurrent Senate campaign of Masters in [[Arizona]], who had served as president of [[Thiel Capital]] and as coauthor with Thiel of *Zero to One*. Vance won and, in 2024, was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with [[Donald Trump]].[^2]
Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention endorsing Trump and was a significant contributor to his 2016 and 2024 campaigns. The Vance outcome compressed an unusually short cycle from investment to return: a single donor's fifteen million dollars in primary-cycle super PAC spending produced a sitting U.S. senator who became vice president within three years. The Masters campaign lost. Both candidates had been backed by Thiel and had worked under him (Masters as Thiel Capital president and *Zero to One* coauthor; Vance as a Thiel-funded political entrant).[^2]