Net Worth: $7 B

LAST YEAR: 5.9 B
CHANGE: 19%
AGE: 54
RESIDENCE: West Hollywood
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Financial technology, social media

THE MONEY: A veteran Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur, Thiel co-founded Paypal Holdings Inc. in 1998 and was chief executive until it was purchased by eBay Inc. in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Thiel was an early investor in social media giant Facebook, now Meta Platforms Inc., and owned a roughly 2.5% stake in the company at the time of its initial public offering in 2012. Thiel launched hedge fund Clarium Capital Management in 2002, and at one time the firm managed more than $7 billion in assets, but its value collapsed amid the 2008 recession. In 2003, Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies Inc., and reportedly owns an 8% stake in the data-analytics company. Palantir went public in 2020 and has a market capitalization north of $20 billion. Thiel also owns a significant stake in venture capital firm Founders Fund.

THE BUZZ: In 2021, ProPublica reported that Thiel had been managing a significant portion of his financial portfolio through a tax-exempt Roth IRA. Thiel managed to bypass limitations on contributions to the retirement account by seeding it with heavily discounted shares in PayPal and using proceeds from sales of these shares to finance subsequent investments. In 2019, Thiel’s Roth IRA was valued at just over $5 billion. The outspoken investor is also a major political donor and one of former president Donald Trump’s most visible and deep-pocketed supporters. Last year alone, he donated more than $20 million to conservative political candidates and political action committees.