Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002. In 2004, he made the first outside investment in Facebook, where he serves as a director, and launched Palantir Technologies, a software company that harnesses computers to empower human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. He started the Thiel Fellowship, which encourages young people to put learning before schooling, and he leads the Thiel Foundation, which works to advance technological progress and long- term thinking about the future.