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This is a stroke of genius by Peter Thiel. In hindsight, he was hedged. If Clinton won, his Trump endorsement would have been chalked up to his contrarian, ecce
by ktamura 10y ago
This is a stroke of genius by Peter Thiel. In hindsight, he was hedged. If Clinton won, his Trump endorsement would have been chalked up to his contrarian, eccentric bent. If Trump won -and he did- Thiel's bet would have a huge return.
His self-interest aside, this is a huge deal for Palantir, the company that he helped found and has many federal governments as their client. Also, in a sense, Thiel ensured that Silicon Valley didn't completely lose touch with the White House and will have some leverage in influencing them. For starters, immigration is a key issue for Silicon Valley for which Thiel can be a voice of reason to influence the new administration.
I don't agree with many things Thiel says or does. That said, this was a brilliant execution.
- objclxt 10y ago> For starters, immigration is a key issue for Silicon Valley for which Thiel can be a voice of reason to influence the new administration. I don't know if immigration is as much of an issue for Palantir, given many of its clients are clandestine and won't permit non-citizens to work on their projects.
- ktamura 10y agoI wasn't talking about Palantir specifically but the valley in general =)
- amasad 10y agoIt's huge for FB, and he's on the board.
- pen2l 10y ago> > For starters, immigration is a key issue for Silicon Valley for which Thiel can be a voice of reason to influence the new administration. > I don't know if immigration is as much of an issue for Palantir, given many of its clients are clandestine and won't permit non-citizens to work on their projects. So, Palantir is actually in trouble for not hiring certain immigrants / races. See http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/technology/us-accuses-tech-firm-of-bias-against-asian-software-engineers.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/technology/us-accuses-tech... And my worthless personal single data point: I personally know a Pakistani guy who was rejected from Palantir. Sure, every other person gets rejected from every other place. The thing is, this guy is one of the best programmers I know of, has great charisma, has great communication skills, and has a star-studded pedigree. Yeah I know I'm going off on a single data, but I was just stunned to see anyone reject this guy because I happen to personally know of his genius.
- wavefunction 10y agoI expect there to be a prohibition against foreign nationals at a lot of defense contractors. Consider his country of origin: it's one of the last places our government wants technology transfer or espionage to occur with. And I mean no offense to your friend, but that's how those folks think.
- pen2l 10y agoSo, I should not have said "Pakistani". He's actually an American-born, his parents came here in early 80s. Is that still a problem you think? Would a defense contractor be hesitant in hiring native-born citizens with parents from a different country of origin?
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Would a defense contractor be hesitant in hiring native-born citizens with parents from a different country of origin? Foreign contacts (including family) may be a complication in security clearance background investigations, IIRC, but AFAIK discriminating directly on that basis (rather than simply requiring the clearance if necessary for the specific job) would be a bright-line violation of the law.
- return0 10y agoDon't you think it's possible he takes a government post? He was certainly one of the very few true supporters.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- okocha 10y agoActually as far as Immigration goes, I don't think Thiel is great champion to pick. Even tho he himself was born in Germany, he has in fact donated millions of dollars to NumbersUSA, a lobbying organization that seeks to reduce US immigration to pre-1965 levels.