Peter Thiel, a billionaire and entrepreneur, is scheduled to speak Thursday evening at the Republican National Convention. Here are five things to know about the RNC speaker:
» Here's how to watch the Republican National Convention on Thursday
1. The billionaire is a Libertarian. In a article from 2009, he wrote: "The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron."
2. Thiel is a Stanford graduate. He studied philosophy as an undergraduate and graduated Stanford Law School in 1992.
3. He co-founded PayPal and became venture capitalist. He also made the first outside investment in Facebook, which eventually earned a huge payday.
4. He has invested in seasteading. Seasteading is the concept of creating floating independent nations where people could create things away from government interference.
5. He's been involved with lawsuits against Gawker. Following a 2007 Gawker article that said he was gay, Thiel anonymously funded a series of lawsuits against the media organization. One of them involving a Hulk Hogan sex tape resulted in a $140 million judgement and led to the company filing bankruptcy and putting itself up for sale.
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