The Thiel File/CASE 06/2002–present

Business

The “PayPal Mafia”

A magazine nickname for a real network of founders, investors and, later, officials

RECORD / AT A GLANCE

A nickname for a documented network

A real network with outsized influence. It is not one political bloc: its members fund both parties and sometimes fight in public.

THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY

The chronology.

READ THE FILE

Evidence & assessment.

01

Who is in it

The network and its limits.

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Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

2 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.

All 153 rated claims ↗

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

  1. Fortune: The PayPal Mafia still rules Silicon Valley, 21 July 2024 ↗

    Fortune’s own look back at its 2007 cover story that coined the name, with the Tosca bar photo of 13 alumni.

  2. Fortune: How Thiel’s network is moving into Trump’s White House, 7 December 2024 ↗

    Names Sacks, O’Neill, Kratsios, Howery and Vance, and says Thiel introduced Vance to Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2021.

  3. PayPal IPO prospectus, 18 January 2002 ↗

    The company’s own history: Confinity founded December 1998, the March 2000 merger with X.com, its officers. Thiel is listed as chief executive.

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