What’s Peter Thiel doing in Israel?
The PayPal and Palantir co-founder attended a Jerusalem wedding alongside the likes of Elad Gil, Keith Rabois, and Joe Lonsdale. Some of the visiting executives later held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent entrepreneurs and investors, arrived in Israel along with several other senior tech figures. Calcalist has learned that the group came to attend the wedding of Zach Frankel, an investor in the Founders Fund, where Thiel is a founding partner.
Among the notable attendees at the Jerusalem event were executives from Blackstone, Elad Gil, Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, and Joe Lonsdale of Palantir, as well as others. Former NBA player and current venture capitalist Omri Casspi was also present. Some of the visiting executives later held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Thiel co-founded the PayPal payment platform with Max Levchin and Elon Musk and served as its CEO until the company was sold to eBay in 2002. He went on to establish Palantir, the big data company where he serves as chairman. Thiel is also a founding partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund, an early investor in Facebook and a backer of other leading companies such as SpaceX, Airbnb, and Spotify. In addition, he founded or partnered in several other investment vehicles, including Clarium Capital, Mithril Capital, and his private fund Thiel Capital. His fortune is estimated at $24 billion, placing him on Bloomberg’s list of the 100 richest people in the world.
Thiel has also recently re-entered politics after a more than two-year hiatus. According to a report in Business Insider, he recently contributed to the Republican National Committee, the main campaign arm of House Republicans. This marks a shift for Thiel, who previously pulled back from political donations after contributing tens of millions of dollars during the 2022 midterm elections.
