He was the first major investor in Facebook, now Peter Thiel is leaving the board of directors of Mark Zuckerberg’s company. The controversial billionaire is now fully supporting the Republican party around Donald Trump.
It was 2004 when the German-born entrepreneur and PayPal founder Peter Thiel gave an 18-year-old in Silicon Valley $500,000 for his start-up. The young man’s name was Mark Zuckerberg and the investment is still one of the most legendary in history. Because the Facebook shares that Thiel got for his small capital injection, he later sold for more than a billion dollars.
Now Thiel’s connection with Zuckerberg’s empire, which has recently been called Meta, ends. The first major Facebook investor is resigning from the board of directors, which he has been a member of since 2005. Zuckerberg’s departure into a digital metaverse will take place without Thiel. Instead, Thiel turns his money and influence to the next – some would say dark – plan. Donald Trump’s political comeback.
Millions in donations for Republican candidates
According to US media, after Facebook’s departure, Thiel wants to focus even more on supporting Republican politicians who are loyal to Trump in the upcoming midterm elections. He already supports four Republican candidates for the Senate and twelve candidates for the House of Representatives. The campaigns of senator candidates JD Vance (Ohio) and Blake Masters (Arizona) are particularly close to his heart, in each of which he has already invested ten million dollars.
The spicy thing: Both were or are not only close employees in Thiel’s investment empire. They are also outspoken opponents of the big tech companies. You have publicly criticized Facebook’s power of opinion and accused the group of influencing elections. Only on Monday did Masters, who also heads Thiel’s personal family office, repeat his demand that Big Tech should not “manipulate information in order to change the outcome of elections”. This puts him in line with Trump, who is currently banned from Twitter and Facebook.
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The parting words from Zuckerberg and Thiel are friendly. Zuckerberg said he was “deeply grateful for everything he’s done for our company” and described Thiel as “an original thinker who you can bring your toughest problems to and get unique suggestions.” Thiel called it “a privilege to work with one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time” and praised Zuckerberg’s “intelligence, energy and conscientiousness”. But with the farewell to Facebook, Thiel is finally making it clear where his loyalties will lie in the future.
Theses critical of democracy
The 53-year-old investor, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $2.6 billion, has become one of the Republican Party’s most influential donors in recent years. He supported Donald Trump’s rise to power in 2016 with a donation of millions and after the election headed his transition team, which prepared for taking over office. And if the Republicans break the majority of the Democrats in the midterms in autumn, Donald Trump’s chances of a renewed presidency in 2024 will also increase.
Thiel, who also owns the surveillance company Palantir, is a supporter of libertarianism and thinks too much government regulation is bad and monopolies are good – at least as long as they don’t oppose him politically. He rejects attempts by tech companies to moderate content more and to take action against fake news, and he has also made decidedly critical of democracy in the past. It is fitting that he has been employing Austrian ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was overthrown for manipulating public opinion, as a “global strategist” for the past few weeks.
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Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
