---
aliases:
- Max R. Levchin
category: Technologists
created: 2026-09-22
relations:
- fn: 1
  role: co-founder of Confinity
  start: 1998-12
  type: founded
  with: '[[PayPal]]'
- fn: 1
  role: chief technology officer
  start: 2000-03
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[PayPal]]'
- fn: 4
  role: founder, chairman and chief executive
  start: 2012
  type: founded
  with: '[[Affirm]]'
- fn: 1
  role: co-founder of Confinity
  start: 1998-12
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[Peter Thiel]]'
summary: Co-founder with Peter Thiel of Confinity, PayPal's chief technology officer,
  and founder, chairman and chief executive of the lender Affirm, whose 2020 filing
  listed Founders Fund among its backers.
tags:
- Person
- PayPalMafia
- PayPal
- Affirm
- PeterThiel
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Max R. Levchin co-founded Confinity, Inc., with [Peter Thiel](/people/peter-thiel/) in December 1998 and was its chief technology officer and a director until March 2000, when Confinity merged with [Elon Musk](/people/elon-musk/)'s X.com Corporation; he was then chief technology officer and a director of the merged company, renamed [PayPal](/organizations/paypal/), Inc., in February 2001. Before Confinity he founded NetMeridian Software, a developer of security applications for handheld computers, which he ran from January 1996 to December 1998, and co-founded SponsorNet, a web advertising service. PayPal's registration statement of September 2001 named Thiel and Levchin as the two executives on whose continued work the company depended to a significant degree, and disclosed that a fraud episode between July and October 2000 had cost it 5.7 million dollars in unauthorized charge-backs and that MasterCard had fined it for excessive charge-backs.[^1] In September 2001 Levchin held 2.6 percent of the company's stock. eBay completed its acquisition of PayPal, valued at about 1.5 billion dollars, on October 3, 2002.[^1][^2]

He is counted among the [PayPal Mafia](/organizations/paypal-mafia/), the network of PayPal founders and early executives whose members went on to found or lead LinkedIn, [Palantir Technologies](/organizations/palantir-technologies/), [Founders Fund](/organizations/founders-fund/), Tesla and SpaceX.[^3]

### Affirm

Levchin is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Affirm, a consumer lender founded in 2012. Under its registration statement of November 2020, its Class B shares carried fifteen votes each and would convert to ordinary shares on the seventh anniversary of the offering or earlier if Levchin and his wife, Nellie Minkova, left the company, fell below half their holdings, or died. Its Series E investors included entities affiliated with Founders Fund, whose partner Keith Rabois, formerly an executive at PayPal and a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, sat on Affirm's board, and Jasmine Ventures Pte Ltd, which put in about 150 million dollars; Levchin himself bought 4.5 million dollars of the Series E.[^4]

[^1]: PayPal, Inc. Form S-1 registration statement, filed September 28, 2001, SEC file no. 333-70438, "Risk Factors," "Management" and "Principal Stockholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205701533855/a2059025zs-1.htm
[^2]: PayPal, Inc. Form 8-K, October 4, 2002, exhibit 99.1, "eBay Completes PayPal Acquisition." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702037693/a2090698zex-99_1.htm
[^3]: Cameron, Dell, and Yulia Almazova. "Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel's Secretive 'Dialog' Society." *WIRED,* June 16, 2026. https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/
[^4]: Affirm Holdings, Inc. Form S-1 registration statement, filed November 18, 2020. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000110465920126927/tm2026663-4_s1.htm