--- title: Peter Thiel: Silicon Valley Billionaire Will Speak at RNC description: Peter Thiel is not only the first openly gay speaker at the Republican National Convention since 2000, he's one of the richest people there canonical: https://time.com/4416781/peter-thiel-rnc-convention-speech-donald-trump/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-21T14:22:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:50:16.889Z article:section: Politics og:title: Meet the Silicon Valley Billionaire Speaking at the RNC og:description: This convention speakers is openly gay and a Trump delegate og:url: https://time.com/4416781/peter-thiel-rnc-convention-speech-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff2d2bf1f4b2e754/6988955f0a4a220bac9c9da4/160527_inv_thiel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 160527_inv_thiel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Silicon Valley Billionaire Speaking at the RNC twitter:description: This convention speakers is openly gay and a Trump delegate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff2d2bf1f4b2e754/6988955f0a4a220bac9c9da4/160527_inv_thiel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Silicon Valley Billionaire Speaking at the RNC by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 21, 2016 2:22 PM UTC  Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal. Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal.Clodagh Kilcoyne—PA Wire/Press Association Images by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 21, 2016 2:22 PM UTC Peter Thiel is not only the first openly gay speaker at the Republican National Convention since 2000, he’s also one of the richest people in the room. The PayPal co-founder is [a notable exception](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/technology/peter-thiels-embrace-of-trump-has-silicon-valley-squirming.html?%5Fr=0) to a crowd of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are uneasy about Donald Trump’s presidential run. Trump’s campaign manager has said Thiel will not speak about being gay at the convention that [produced a platform](http://time.com/4411842/republican-platform-same-sex-marriage-abortion-guns-wall-street/) with drastically anti-LGBTQ language. “He’ll be talking about Donald Trump the man he knows and as a successful entrepreneur,” [said Paul Manafort.](http://time.com/4409879/republican-convention-peter-thiel-gay/) PayPal was the first golden ticket for Thiel, who was the co-founder and CEO of the internet payment website. He was the first outside investor in Facebook in 2004 and is now involved in several Silicon Valley investment funds. Thiel, 48, was outed as gay against his wishes [in 2007 by Gawker](http://time.com/4348840/peter-thiel-gawker-lawsuit-hulk-hogan/). He has [funded professional wrestler Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit](http://time.com/4348840/peter-thiel-gawker-lawsuit-hulk-hogan/) against Gawker over a sex tape the website released of Hogan in 2012. Thiel’s official role at the convention is as a Trump delegate. While he initially supported Carly Fiorina’s presidential bid, he [switched his support](http://fortune.com/2016/05/10/peter-thiel-trump-delegate/) to Trump in May. Thiel is known to have libertarian views on politics, putting him in contrast with the liberal views of many Silicon Valley leaders. The billionaire [attended this year’s meeting](http://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/) of the mysterious Bilderberg Group in Germany, a group of world leaders that has gathered since the 1950s to discuss global economic and political issues. . ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4416781/peter-thiel-rnc-convention-speech-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4416781/peter-thiel-rnc-convention-speech-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Meet the Silicon Valley Billionaire Speaking at the RNC","datePublished":"2016-07-21T14:22:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:16.889Z","description":"Peter Thiel is gay, a Silicon Valley billionaire and a Trump delegate","url":"https://time.com/4416781/peter-thiel-rnc-convention-speech-donald-trump/","keywords":["Republican National Convention","Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff2d2bf1f4b2e754/6988955f0a4a220bac9c9da4/160527_inv_thiel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff2d2bf1f4b2e754/6988955f0a4a220bac9c9da4/160527_inv_thiel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"160527_inv_thiel","caption":"160527_inv_thiel","creditText":"Clodagh Kilcoyne—PA Wire/Press Association Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-national-convention/","name":"Republican National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4416781/peter-thiel-rnc-convention-speech-donald-trump/","name":"Meet the Silicon Valley Billionaire Speaking at the RNC"}}]}] ```