--- born: 1984-05-14 category: Technologists created: 2026-06-19 location: Palo Alto, California summary: Mark Zuckerberg is the cofounder and chief executive of Facebook, now Meta, whose first outside investor and longtime board member was Peter Thiel, and who realigned the company toward the Trump-era tech-right after the 2024 election. tags: - Person - MarkZuckerberg - Facebook - Meta - PeterThiel - SiliconValley updated: 2026-06-19 --- Mark Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is the cofounder and chief executive of Facebook, renamed Meta in 2021, the social-media company he started at [Harvard University](/organizations/harvard-university/) in 2004 with [Dustin Moskovitz](/people/dustin-moskovitz/), Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Andrew McCollum. [Peter Thiel](/people/peter-thiel/) was the company's first outside investor and a member of its board for seventeen years, and Zuckerberg's network and trajectory intersect the [Thiel Influence Network](/concepts/thiel-influence-network/) at several points, from the founding investment to the Trump-era political realignment.[^1][^2] ### The Thiel Relationship Thiel made the first outside investment in Facebook in 2004, five hundred thousand dollars structured as a convertible note for about 10.2 percent of the company, valuing it near 4.9 million dollars, and joined its board in 2005. He sold large blocks at and after the May 2012 initial public offering, taking roughly 640 million dollars at the IPO and several hundred million more after the lockup expired in August 2012, and remained a director until February 2022, when he declined reelection to focus on funding pro-[Trump](/people/donald-trump/) political candidates ahead of the midterms.[^1][^3] Thiel acted as an intermediary between Zuckerberg and the political right. He attended a previously undisclosed dinner with Zuckerberg and Trump in the Blue Room of the White House on October 22, 2019, organized on short notice and reported by NBC News a month later, during the week Zuckerberg testified to Congress on Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the meeting "corruption, plain and simple."[^6] ### The Epstein Dinner An August 2015 dinner in Palo Alto, hosted by [Reid Hoffman](/people/reid-hoffman/) and reported by Vanity Fair in 2019, placed Zuckerberg at the same table as Thiel, [Elon Musk](/people/elon-musk/), and [Joi Ito](/people/joi-ito/) of the MIT Media Lab, who brokered access to [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/)'s money and circle. Epstein emailed the financier Thomas Pritzker on August 20, 2015, "i had dinner with zuckerburg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild," and emailed himself a photograph from the gathering, both of which surfaced in the document releases under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in late 2025 and early 2026. Releasers stressed that being named in the files is not evidence of wrongdoing.[^4][^7] Meta has disputed any closer connection, with a spokesman stating in 2019 that Zuckerberg "met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner" and "did not communicate with Epstein again." Hoffman apologized in September 2019 for participating in fundraising where Epstein was present, saying he had helped "repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice," while Musk has said he refused invitations to Epstein's island, a claim that reporters noted sits awkwardly against released 2012 to 2013 emails between Musk and Epstein. Ito resigned from the MIT Media Lab, the MIT Corporation, and other boards in September 2019 after Ronan Farrow reported in The New Yorker that the lab had concealed millions of dollars in Epstein-linked donations, referring to him internally as "Voldemort."[^8][^9] ### The 2025 Realignment After Trump's 2024 election, Zuckerberg moved Meta toward the tech-right. The company donated one million dollars to Trump's inauguration fund, having given nothing to the 2017 or 2021 inaugurations. On January 2, 2025 Meta replaced its policy chief Nick Clegg with Joel Kaplan, a former deputy chief of staff to George W. Bush, and on January 6 it added the Ultimate Fighting Championship head Dana White to its board. On January 7 it announced it was ending its third-party fact-checking program in the United States for a "community notes" model and moving its content-moderation operations from California to Texas, and on January 10 it ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.[^5][^10] In a January 2025 appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast Zuckerberg said corporate culture had tried to "get away from" "masculine energy," which he called "good," and that companies should "celebrate the aggression a bit more," signaling an alignment with the cultural politics promoted by the Thiel network and figures such as [Mike Solana](/people/mike-solana/) and [Marc Andreessen](/people/marc-andreessen/).[^11] [^1]: "Peter Thiel to step down from board of Facebook parent Meta," *CNBC,* February 7, 2022, on the first investment, the 2005-2022 board tenure, and the Trump focus. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/07/peter-thiel-to-step-down-from-facebook-board.html [^2]: "Tech billionaire Peter Thiel resigns from board of Facebook parent," *UPI,* February 7, 2022. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/02/07/billionaire-Peter-Thiel-resigns-board-Facebook/5311644280042/ [^3]: "Peter Thiel to step down from Facebook's board," CNN Business, February 7, 2022, on Thiel as intermediary and the 2019 Trump-Zuckerberg dinner. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/07/tech/peter-thiel-facebook-board [^4]: Tommy Carstensen Epstein Files index, cross-referencing the EFTA releases (EFTA00344556, EFTA00344564) for the 2015 dinner guest list. https://tommycarstensen.com/epstein/people/peter-thiel.html [^5]: "Meta ends fact-checking program," contemporaneous press coverage of the January 2025 content-moderation and policy changes and the Trump inauguration donation. [^6]: "Trump had a previously undisclosed dinner with Zuckerberg and Thiel," *NBC News,* November 20, 2019, on the October 22, 2019 White House dinner and Warren's response. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trump-zuckerberg-had-previously-undisclosed-dinner-white-house-n1087986 [^7]: "Epstein emailed about a 2015 dinner with Zuckerberg, Musk and Thiel," *Fortune,* 2026, on the "wild" email to Thomas Pritzker, the self-addressed photo, and the EFTA releases; the dinner first reported by *Vanity Fair,* 2019. https://fortune.com/2026/epstein-email-zuckerberg-musk-thiel-dinner/ [^8]: "Meta says Zuckerberg met Epstein once," statements by spokesman Ben LaBolt, 2019; and Hoffman's September 12, 2019 apology, *Axios.* https://www.axios.com/2019/09/12/reid-hoffman-jeffrey-epstein-apology [^9]: Farrow, Ronan. "How an Elite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein," *The New Yorker,* September 6, 2019, on the MIT Media Lab donations and Ito's resignation. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein [^10]: "Meta names Joel Kaplan as policy chief," *CNBC,* January 2, 2025; "Dana White joins Meta board," Meta Newsroom, January 6, 2025; "Meta ends fact-checking and moves moderation to Texas," *The Texas Tribune,* January 7, 2025; "Meta ends DEI programs," *CNBC,* January 10, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/02/meta-names-joel-kaplan-to-succeed-nick-clegg-as-policy-chief.html [^11]: "Mark Zuckerberg says companies need more 'masculine energy,'" *Fortune,* January 13, 2025, on the Joe Rogan podcast remarks. https://fortune.com/2025/01/13/mark-zuckerberg-joe-rogan-masculine-energy-meta/