Thiel Foundation

The Thiel Foundation is a private foundation created and funded by billionaire Peter Thiel, known as a co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook.

Thiel concentrates the bulk of his philanthropic efforts on what he sees as potential breakthrough technologies. In November 2010, Thiel organized a Breakthrough Philanthropy conference that showcased eight nonprofits that he believed were working on radical new ideas in technology, government, and human affairs. A similar conference was organized in December 2011 with the name "Fast Forward".

The Thiel Foundation has three main internal projects: the Thiel Fellowship, Imitatio, and Breakout Labs.

The Thiel Fellowship (originally named 20 under 20) is intended for young visionaries under the age of 20 and offers them a total of $100,000 over two years as well as guidance and other resources to drop out of school and pursue other work, which could involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Selection for the fellowship is through a competitive annual process, with about 20-25 fellows selected annually. Peter Thiel announced the fellowship at TechCrunch Disrupt in September 2010. The first round of fellows, based on applications made at the end of 2010, was announced in May 2011.

Imitiatio is a project funded by the Thiel Foundation that aims to understand the world through the lens of Rene Girard's mimetic theory.

Breakout Labs is a grant-making body operating as part of the Thiel Foundation (a philanthropic organization created by Peter Thiel). Breakout Labs gives grants for early-stage scientific research that is too speculative or long-term to interest the for-profit sector (such as angel investors and venture capitalists) but may be unsuitable for traditional sources of funding for scientific research due to its radical or offbeat nature. Grants are made through a competitive application and selection process. Breakout Labs announced its first batch of grantees on April 17, 2012, and its second batch of grantees on August 15, 2012.

The Thiel Foundation supports outside groups in three main areas: freedom, science and technology, and anti-violence. Some of the prominent organizations that have received major grants from the Thiel Foundation are described below.

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