Peter Thiel to exit Meta’s board to support Trump candidates
Peter Thiel, one of the longest-serving board members of Meta, the parent of Facebook, plans to step down, the company said Monday.
Thiel, 54, wants to focus on influencing November’s midterm elections, said a person with knowledge of
Thiel’s thinking and who declined to be identified. Thiel sees the midterms as crucial to changing the direction of the country, this person said, and he is backing candidates who support the agenda of former President Donald Trump.
Over the past year, Thiel, who has a net worth estimated at $2.6 billion by Forbes, has become one of the Republican’s Party’s largest donors. Last year, he gave $10 million each to the campaigns of two proteges, Blake Masters, running for a Senate seat in Arizona, and J.D. Vance, running for Senate in Ohio.
Thiel has been on Meta’s board since 2005, when Facebook was a tiny startup and he was one of its first institutional investors. But scrutiny of Thiel’s position on the board has steadily increased as the company has become embroiled in political controversies, including barring Trump from the platform, and as the venture capitalist has become more politically active.
Thiel’s departure means Meta loses its board’s most prominent conservative voice. The board has undergone significant changes in recent years, as many of its members have left and been replaced, often with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox, joined Facebook’s board in 2020, and Tony Xu, founder of DoorDash, joined it last month.
“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he’s done for our company,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get original suggestions.”
A spokesperson for Thiel said he wasn’t available to comment.
Thiel first met Zuckerberg 18 years ago when he provided the entrepreneur with $500,000 in capital for Facebook, valuing the company at $4.9 million.