Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and Republican rainmaker who has been largely silent as the midterm elections have neared, is starting to make noise again.
Thiel last month donated $101,700 to the Republic National Committee, according to newly posted records from the Federal Election Committee. That’s his biggest political contribution since the 2016 elections.
Thiel has never completely gotten out of backing candidates. Late last year he contributed to the campaign of GOP Senate candidate Ivan Raiklin (who failed to make the primary ballot) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, according to records. And he gave $66,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Thiel’s last mega donation came on Oct. 26, 2016, when he gave $1 million to “Make America Number 1,” a super political action committee that backed Donald Trump. That same month, he gave over $250,000 to other Trump PACs and nearly $150,000 to the RNC.
Thiel is one of the most visible (and sometimes controversial) investors in Silicon Valley (though he left the Valley for L.A. earlier this year). The founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, his Founders Fund invested heavily in Bitcoin earlier this year. He’s best known, though, for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of Gawker, a site that published an article in 2007 about Thiel‘s homosexuality.
His activism, though, has had some impact on his investing reach, though. In late 2017, Y Combinator quietly cut ties with Thiel.
