Peter Thiel is an American venture capitalist, author, and entrepreneur with a net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes. In 2014, he was included in the Forbes Midas List at No. 4. In 2017, he was featured on the Forbes 400 list. Thiel co-founded PayPal along with billionaire Elon Musk in 1999. He was the company’s CEO until its acquisition by eBay in 2002. Thiel is the author of “Zero to One” and “The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus.”

Thiel was born on October 11, 1967 in Frankfurt, Germany. His family later on moved to the United States, but the billionaire entrepreneur ended up spending a part of his childhood in Africa before completely settling down back in the U.S. While his businesses vary and are wide-ranging, Thiel is more popularly known as a technology investor. He first attracted public attention with his innovations and contributions to the field of banking and startup finance.

These days, Thiel has been working on preventing a technology deficit crisis which he believes could bring extreme economic harm to all countries. Part of his efforts to stop this impending disaster is providing funding and recognition to technology concepts that have the potential to solve the issues. Apart from helping these innovators gain proper funding, he also endeavors to push them to hopefully dominate their chosen industries.