Peter Thiel: The Entrepreneur Behind the Opacity of Silicon Valley

Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos… These names, which have been on everyone’s lips for years, correspond to the most powerful technological entrepreneurs in the world. Their companies have also played a role in some of the most controversial strategies, although they may not be to blame. A new bio shows how Peter ThielCo-founder of PayPal, would stand behind the occult and demanding labor policies of these companies.

Is about ‘the contrariana newly published work by the Bloomberg journalist Max Chafkin which uncovers the most controversial and obscure facet of Peter Thiel, how one of the most obscure entrepreneurs could be behind Facebook’s opaque strategies or that Glovo copied his controversial working model with its drivers from Uber.

The character of Peter Thiel is somewhat enigmatic, although his resume is impeccable. He is a co-founder of PayPal with Elon Musk and has invested in large tech companies such as LinkedIn, Spotify and Airbnb from the start. He was also a major investor in Facebook and himself a mentor to Mark Zuckerberg.

“Peter Thiel is not the richest of this group of entrepreneurs, but what sets him apart is his ideology, this idea of ​​technological disruption, that tech companies need to grow as much and as fast as possible and for that they need to leapfrog the existing regulation and create new ones Enforce laws that benefit them,” explains Chafkin in an interview with the confidential.

In addition, the journalist discovers the concept of PayPal mafia, something of a club for technology entrepreneurs, of which Peter Thiel is a prominent member. “Every technology there is connected to this small group of investors in one way or another. The first PayPal employees were all friends, they started investing in each other’s companies, sharing employees, money could be transferred from one company to another…” he explains.

The controversial business of Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is not only regarded as one of the architects of the most controversial strategies of the big technology companies, but also maintains dubious relationships with political power. personal friend of donald trumpthe entrepreneur owns Palantira company founded in 2004 specializing in the analysis of big data for governments and large corporations.

Nothing unusual in this industry if it weren’t for the fact that Peter Thiel’s company never turned a profit despite having large customers, posting a loss of $590 million in 2019. Although Palantir’s spirit during its inception, according to Thiel, was to fight terrorism, the truth is that the company has also been accused of helping to garner votes for political campaigns.

However, various groups of activists have long protested against it Palantir working with the United States government to strengthen border control. Among other controversial agreements, the company once again took the spotlight for its collaboration with the New Orleans Police Department in the surveillance and arrests of African Americans.