THIEL FLEES TO LA

Exits liberal Valley

Peter Thiel, a billionaire investor and one of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, is leaving the tech hub and moving to Los Angeles.

A prominent conservative who founded PayPal along with Tesla’s Elon Musk — and was an early investor in Facebook — Thiel has reportedly grown tired of the Bay Area’s liberal politics, according to a report on Thursday.

The billionaire will move Thiel Capital and Thiel Foundation, which oversee his investments, to the City of Angels this year, according to the report.

Thiel is expected to set up shop in a 7,000-square-foot home overlooking the Sunset Strip.

The 50-year-old investor became a controversial figure in Silicon Valley in recent years because of his support of then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. He donated $1.25 million to the Trump campaign, and delivered a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Thiel has also gained notoriety for quietly financing pro wrestler Hulk Hogan’s invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media.

The wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, won the suit and bankrupted the gossip site.

Thiel bankrolled the suit because he was irate that Gawker had outed him as being gay in a 2007 story.

The investor’s politics have put him at odds with prominent players in Silicon Valley, including fellow Facebook board member Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, who called Thiel’s support of Trump “catastrophically bad judgment.”

In a debate with Hastings at Stanford University last month, Thiel elaborated on his views.

“Silicon Valley is a oneparty state,” he said. “That’s when you get in trouble politically in our society, when you’re all in one side.”

Thiel has considered stepping down from Facebook’s board, but is staying on for now because he feels that he can still contribute to the company, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on Thiel’s plan to exit Silicon Valley.

Thiel has left the boards of Zenefits and Asana, and sold most of his stake in Twilio. He remains on the board of a number of companies, including data-mining firm Palantir Technologies, whose product is used by ICE and US Customs and Border Protection to track illegal immigrants.

In Los Angeles, Thiel will reportedly attempt to create a new conservative media outlet.