Peter Thiel: Life and rise of the controversial Silicon Valley investor

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel published an op-ed in The New York Times on August 1 attacking Google for doing artificial-intelligence research in China while simultaneously refusing to do business with the US military.

Thiel is an outspoken Trump supporter, according to Forbes.

Thiel, 51, cofounded PayPal alongside Max Levchin in 1998 and was an early investor in Facebook, according to Bloomberg.

Thiel has a net worth of $2.5 billion, Forbes estimates.

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Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley's most successful and controversial venture capitalists, has a problem with Google.

In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Thiel accused the search engine of being unpatriotic for operating an artificial intelligence lab in China while simultaneously developing artificial intelligence for the Pentagon. Thiel has repeatedly launched this criticism at Google in recent years, beginning during a July speech at the National Conservatism conference in which he called the research “treasonous.”

Read more: Peter Thiel just cranked up his attack on Google's 'naive' relationship with China in a blistering New York Times op-ed

This isn't the first time Thiel, 51, has expressed issues with Silicon Valley. In 2018, he relocated his home, personal funds, and his foundation from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, according to The Wall Street Journal, and took his 50-person staff with him. At the time, Thiel said that Silicon Valley felt like a “one-party state,” according to Forbes.

Despite being a famously private person, Thiel is an outspoken libertarian and supporter of President Trump, according to Forbes. Thiel also spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016.

Keep reading to learn more about Peter Thiel.