The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power

Peter Thiel might be the most influential Silicon Valley entrepreneur of the last 20 years, writes Bloomberg tech reporter Chafkin. The author spent 15 years covering the technology beat where he discovered much information about the elusive and enigmatic Thiel, an arch-conservative billionaire who was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the alt-right. Chafkin reveals aspects of Thiel’s life, from his college and law school days at Stanford, through his time as Trump’s chief technology advisor in 2017. He depicts Thiel as a ruthless CEO who amassed fortunes from his investments in lucrative companies—notably PayPal, where he won control from Elon Musk; and Facebook, where he manipulated Mark Zuckerberg into an uneasy détente that made Facebook amenable to Trump’s campaign. Chafkin assesses Thiel as a powerful and dangerous venture capitalist who believes that technology shouldn’t be impeded by employees or society.