Peter Thiel: On the roster to teach at Stanford University. Photo: Wikipedia
Peter Thiel, the gay billionaire entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, is returning to Stanford University to teach about the limits of globalization.
The venture capitalist, who was famously the first outside investor in Facebook, is listed as an instructor for the course.
Stanford is Thiel’s alma mater. He attended Stanford for both undergraduate and law school, and he previously taught a law course at the undergraduate level in 2011.
Eagle-eyed undergraduate Andrew Granato spotted the listing and posted details of the course on Twitter.
Thiel’s teaching: Sovereignty and the limits of Globalization and Technology. Photo: @agranato42 Twitter
The gay entrepreneur Thiel will be a co-instructor for ‘German 270: Sovereignty and the Limits of Globalization and Technology.’
The seminar is to be presented by the university’s German department. Thiel himself was born in Germany and speaks the language fluently.
According to the description posted on Twitter, the course ‘explores the tensions between state and market,’ with readings from Marx and Nietzsche, among other scholars.
Media and technology website, The Verge, noted that the syllabus includes the French philosopher René Girard, who Thiel has credited with shaping his worldview. Thiel will be co-teaching the class with Russell Berman, a German professor known for his classes on conservatism.
Tech man Thiel: Supported Trump presidential campaign. Photo: flickr
Gay business leader advised on and donated to Trump’s presidential campaign
Thiel advised US President Donald Trump during his presidential campaign and reportedly donated $1.25m to it. He was a stalwart of California’s silicon Valley, but has recently fallen out of love with it.
In a recent interview he said he had grown weary of the technology hub’s herd mentality, however, he remains a board member of Facebook.
Thiel is a partner of The Founder’s Fund, a venture capital firm he co-founded. Last year it invested tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency Bitcoin. His personal net worth is $2.6bn according to Forbes.
The technology multibillionaire has not posted on his Facebook page since 2012. There is only one post on his Twitter account, from 2014, although he boasts 190,000 followers.
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Qantas CEO donates $1 million of his own money to marriage equality
