Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of about $11.6 billion as of September 2024, placing him 206th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As an accomplished business founder, investor, and author, Thiel is a public figure whom investors can learn from.
Who is he?
Who is Peter Thiel?
Several years after college, Peter Thiel co-founded the company that later became PayPal (PYPL 0.94%), pioneering digital payments. Thiel eventually became PayPal's CEO, overseeing its initial public offering (IPO) in 2002 and its subsequent acquisition by eBay (EBAY 0.0%). Securing a big payday from the PayPal acquisition, Thiel started his own hedge fund.
In 2004, he also invested $500,000 in the company now called Meta Platforms (META 2.44%), which gave him about a 10% ownership stake in the business. When Meta Platforms went public in 2012, Thiel began selling his shares. Over the years, he continued selling shares in multiple transactions, cashing out more than $1.1 billion from his early investment.
About the same time he invested in Meta Platforms, Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR). The company was privately held for many years before going public in 2020 at a market capitalization valuation of about $20 billion.
Personal stats
Peter Thiel's personal stats
- Age: Thiel was born on Oct. 11, 1967.
- Source of wealth: Thiel has co-founded multiple unicorn companies and has invested in several successful start-ups.
- Marital status: Thiel married Matt Danzeisen in 2017.
- Residence: With properties in California, Florida, Washington, D.C., and New Zealand, Thiel can be hard to pin down. But his primary residence is believed to be his home in Los Angeles.
- Education: Thiel graduated from Stanford University.
His approach
Peter Thiel's investment approach
There isn't a single path to investing success -- multiple strategies can work. Different investors play the game according to their own unique style. For example, investor Warren Buffett focuses on more mature, profitable companies where he believes competitive advantages can be sustained for the foreseeable future.
By contrast, Peter Thiel approaches investing from the opposite end of the spectrum: He invests in start-ups, usually in the technology sector. For those wanting to learn his style, Thiel outlined many of his investing principles and philosophies in his book Zero to One.
Thiel starts with a contrarian opinion about the economy or an industry -- a belief few others hold. Then, he looks for a business that's offering a product or service that's an order of magnitude better than the competition. In some instances, there's no real competition at all because the business is venturing into uncharted territory in relation to one of Thiel's contrarian views.
Being first or being exponentially better can lead to a business controlling a large percentage of a market, allowing for strong profitability in the company's core competence. From there, a business can use profits to expand into ancillary business opportunities.
Investments
Peter Thiel's investments
Here are some of Peter Thiel's top personal stock holdings.
| Name | Market Cap | About This Company | Thiel's Stake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) | $71 billion | The company's software is used for complex data analytics. | Thiel owns almost 130 million shares directly and indirectly, worth around $4 billion. |
| AbCellera Biologics (NASDAQ:ABCL) | $750 million | The company uses software to discover and develop novel antibody drugs. | Unclear. He owned more than 14 million shares, currently worth around $37 million, in 2023. But upon resigning from the board of directors, he's no longer required to file paperwork when buying or selling. |
| Fractyl Health (NASDAQ:GUTS) | $170 million | A healthcare company trying to address the root causes of obesity and diabetes. | Via his Mithril fund, Thiel owns about 6 million preferred shares of various classes, worth about $21 million altogether. |
It's worth noting that Peter Thiel is not one of the founders of AbCellera Biologics. Rather, he was a financial backer and director like he was for Meta Platforms. But Thiel resigned from the board in February 2024. Because he's no longer directly involved with the company, it's unclear whether he still has a stake in the business.
Thiel remains active in several investment funds, including the Founders Fund. The Founders Fund has invested in many promising new companies, including still privately held space company SpaceX, privately held financial technology company Stripe, and short-term rental platform Airbnb (ABNB 0.44%).
More from Thiel
More from this investor
Peter Thiel isn't active on social media. However, he does occasionally make guest appearances on podcasts and has been known to make TV appearances along with contributions to CNBC.
In 2001, Thiel authored Zero to One, which landed on the New York Times Best Seller list. Thiel's book still ranks in the top 200 books on Amazon (AMZN 2.94%) for entrepreneurship.
A great investor
Peter Thiel's investment strategy is clearly working. His successful past investments in small companies have allowed him to increase his net worth at an enormous rate. By imitating his thinking, other investors could possibly identify promising start-up companies, too.
Related investing topics
However, it should be noted that this investing style can also result in big losers -- and Thiel has had his flops. After all, it's far easier to lose substantial capital in an unproven start-up than it is to lose money in a mature company with a long track record of robust profitability.
That said, just one winner can wipe out many bad investments and drive long-term portfolio returns. In Thiel's case, his investment in Meta Platforms was epic. The trick is to hold on to winners when using Thiel's investment style. Selling a winner too soon can greatly lessen an investor's long-term performance.
FAQ
Peter Thiel FAQ
What companies does Peter Thiel invest in?
Peter Thiel usually invests in early-stage companies that he believes have large upsides. These are often venture-capital stage investments because the companies aren't yet big enough to want to go public.
Moreover, Thiel has invested in cryptocurrency in the past, including Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). It's unclear how much he holds exactly, but as of mid-2024, Thiel had confirmed he still holds "some."
What is the Peter Thiel 10x rule?
Also called the "10x improvement rule," this is part of Thiel's criteria when looking for a promising investment. In short, he's looking for a company that offers a service or product that's 10 times better than the competition.
In Thiel's view, monopolistic competition erodes profit potential over time. He prefers companies with products or services that are so good that they enjoy monopoly-like advantages.
How did Peter Thiel get so rich?
As this article shows, Peter Thiel's ownership stakes in PayPal, Meta Platforms, and Palantir Technologies have contributed to the vast majority of his wealth. But one can't overlook how he's used U.S. tax law to his advantage as well. In fact, he may have the most valuable Roth IRA in history.
As of 2024, investors under 50 can contribute only $7,000 annually to a Roth IRA retirement account. However, according to a report from ProPublica, Thiel was able to use his Roth IRA to buy and hold his founder shares of PayPal. After eBay acquired the company, his account suddenly became worth millions of dollars. He then used these gains to invest in Meta Platforms and Palantir tax-free.
Thanks to these savvy moves, Thiel's Roth IRA was reportedly worth about $5 billion in 2021 -- an otherwise impossible number to reach, considering the annual contribution limits.
He'd likely still be a billionaire without using tax law to his advantage in this way. However, not paying taxes on these gains has greatly contributed to Peter Thiel's wealth. And if he can patiently wait just a few more years, he can begin withdrawing this money tax-free as well.
