Peter Thiel sold 20 million shares of Facebook just months after its IPO—but they’d be worth …

Preston Fore Tue, Jul 1, 2025, 11:54 AM 4 min read In This Article: Billionaire Peter Thiel was Facebook’s first outside investor, but he may now have regrets for how soon he cashed out. Just months after the tech company’s IPO, he sold millions of shares for $20 each for a sum of $400 million; with the stock now worth 37 times more, he could have been $15 billion richer today. Invest in Gold Powered by Money.com – Yahoo may earn commission from the links above. Investing is a game of risk and reward. Get it right, and you could build a billion-dollar fortune. Get it wrong, and it might all go up in smoke. For PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, being the first outside Facebook investor was hardly a bust—but there may be some seller’s remorse. The tech entrepreneur first coughed up $500,000 in 2004 for a 10% stake in the company, just months into its creation—giving it a value of about $4.9 million. Nearly a decade later, following the company’s May 2012 IPO, Thiel decided it was time to cash out. Thiel sold about 20.1 million shares in the company—a majority of his stake—for $19.27 to $20.69 each, netting
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