Peter Thiel

About Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel returns to the Midas List for a 16th time as the cofounder and general partner of venture fund Founders Fund.

Among its investments are Stripe and SpaceX, two of the most valuable unicorns in the world; Stripe was valued at $159 billion as of February 2026; SpaceX is planning to go public this summer at a valuation of $1.75 trillion.

He also cofounded CIA-backed big data startup Palantir, which went public via a direct listing in 2020.

Thiel, the first big investor in Facebook, has sold most of his stake in the social network; He left the board in 2022.

His Thiel Foundation gives a small number of young entrepreneurs $100,000 over two years to skip college and build their own company.

Thiel moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco in early 2018 after calling Silicon Valley a "one-party state."