Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of about $9.6 billion. This wealth places him 215th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index midway through 2023.
As an accomplished business founder, investor, and author, Thiel is a public figure who 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 2.9%), pioneering digital payments. Thiel eventually became PayPal's CEO, overseeing its initial public offering (IPO) in 2002 and its subsequent acquisition by eBay (EBAY 1.32%).
Securing a big payday from the PayPal acquisition, Thiel started his own hedge fund. In 2004, he also made a $500,000 investment in the company now called Meta Platforms (META 0.43%) -- an investment that gave him about a 10% ownership stake in the business. When Meta Platforms went public in 2012, Thiel began selling his shares. He continued selling shares in multiple transactions over the years, cashing out more than $1.1 billion from his early investment.
About the same time that he invested in Meta Platforms, Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies (PLTR 3.73%). The company was privately held for many years before going public in 2020 at a market-capitalization valuation of about $20 billion.
In 2001, Thiel authored Zero To One, a book that landed on the New York Times bestsellers list.
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 also invested in several successful startups.
- 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.
Investment 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: startups, 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 that few others hold. Then he looks for a business that's offering a product or a 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 related 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, businesses can use profits to expand into ancillary businesses.
Investments
Peter Thiel's investments
Here are some of Peter Thiel's top personal stock holdings.
| Name | Ticker | Market Cap | About this company | Thiel's stake |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palantir Technologies | PLTR | $34 billion | The company's software is used for complex data analytics. | More than 163 million shares directly, worth around $2.6 billion. |
| AbCellera Biologics | ABCL | $2.1 billion | The company uses software to discover and develop novel antibody drugs. | More than 13 million shares, worth around $100 million. |
| Meta Platforms | META | $691 billion | The company owns popular social media apps including Facebook and Instagram. Its Oculus headset is one of the bestselling metaverse hardware devices in the world. | Less than 14,000 shares, worth around $3.7 million. |
It's worth noting that Peter Thiel is not one of the founders of AbCellera Biologics (ABCL 3.58%). Rather, he's a financial backer and a director, like he was for Meta Platforms.
Also of note is that 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 0.75%).
More from this investor
More from this investor
Peter Thiel isn't active on social media. However, he does occasionally make guest appearances on podcasts. And he's been known to make TV appearances, including contributions to CNBC.
Thiel's book Zero To One still ranks in the top 100 books on Amazon (AMZN 3.43%) for entrepreneurship.
Peter Thiel is a great investorÂ
Peter Thiel's investment strategy is clearly working for him. Successful past investments in small companies allowed him to increase his net worth at an enormous rate. And by imitating his thinking, it's possible for other investors to identify promising startup companies as well.
However, it should be noted that this investing style can result in big losers as well -- and Thiel has had his flops. After all, it's far easier to lose substantial capital in an unproven startup than it is to lose money in a mature company with a long track record of robust profitability.
That said, just one winner -- in Thiel's case, his investment in Meta Platforms was epic -- can wipe out many bad investments and drive long-term portfolio returns. 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.
FAQs
Peter Thiel FAQs
What companies does Peter Thiel invest in?
Peter Thiel usually invests in early-stage companies that he believes have large upsides. Often these are venture-capital stage investments because these companies aren't yet big enough to want to go public.
However, some funds associated with Peter Thiel do have investments in small-cap stocks, including current holdings in satellite imagery analytics company BlackSky Technologies (NYSE: BKSY) and biotech company Invivyd (NASDAQ: IVVD).
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 that have products or services that are so good that these companies enjoy monopoly-like advantages.
How did Peter Thiel get so rich?
As seen in this article, 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 2023, investors under 50 can only contribute $6,500 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. And after eBay acquired the company, his account was suddenly worth millions of dollars. He then used these gains to invest in Meta Platforms and Palantir tax-free.
Thiel's Roth IRA was reportedly worth about $5 billion in 2021 -- an 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.
