Tech billionaire and NZ citizen Peter Thiel will step down from the board of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, after 17 years.
German-born American Thiel made his initial fortune in Silicon Valley first as co-founder of both PayPal and software firm Palantir. Forbes estimates his net worth at US$2.6 billion.
He has been on the Facebook board of directors since April 2005 when the company was a startup and Mark Zuckerberg was casting about for influential partners. Thiel was Facebook’s first outside investor, investing $500,000 in 2004.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Thiel is stepping down to concentrate on influencing the upcoming November midterm elections in the US, backing candidates who support Trump’s agenda.
Last year, Thiel donated Republicans Blake Masters and JD Vance $US10 million each, both running for Senate seats.
“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I'm deeply grateful for everything he has done for our company -- from believing in us when few others would, to teaching me so many lessons about business, economics, and the world,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.
“It has been a privilege to work with one of the great entrepreneurs of our time,” Thiel said.
“Mark Zuckerberg's intelligence, energy, and conscientiousness are tremendous. His talents will serve Meta well as he leads the company into a new era.”
That new era was heralded when Facebook changed its company name to Meta and Zuckerberg boldly stated his intention to spearhead the rise of the metaverse, a vision of computing in virtual reality that some companies hope will supersede the smartphone.
Thiel’s relationship with New Zealand came to the fore in January 2011 when he applied for citizenship, which was granted in June of the same year having only spent 12 days in the country, according to reports.
Media also reported NZ entrepreneurs Sam Morgan and Rod Drury had contributed to Thiel’s application, while his Founders Fund has occasionally invested in local businesses such as photo software company Narrative and medtech firm HeartLab.
In recent times, Thiel has been seeking permission to build a luxury lodge overlooking Lake Wānaka, a project not yet approved.
In recent years, Thiel proved a controversial figure on the public stage whose conservative leanings influenced Zuckerberg though debatably gave the Facebook board a political and ideological counterpoint.
Thiel has donated large sums to the Republican Party, notably to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
It is posited that Facebook’s slowness to ban Trump from the platform, long after Twitter and other social media flagged and blocked posts that violated terms of use, was influenced by Thiel.
He will serve as a director until Meta’s 2022 annual shareholder meeting. His departure from Meta’s board leaves it with nine directors including Zuckerberg, Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and executives from PayPal and Dropbox.
