Peter Thiel is a name that has always been synonymous with innovation, although he hasn’t always been a celebrity. Most millennials first learned his name while watching a film called “The Social Network."
Thiel is one of the best-known names in venture capitalism and for good reason
“You know Peter Thiel?” Napster founder Sean Parker asks Facebook CFO Eduardo Saverin in one scene. When Saverin admits that he does not, Parker responds “No reason you should, he just runs a 2 billion dollar hedge fund called Clarium Capital.” Indeed, Thiel was one of the biggest names in the world of technology and investing and continues to be so to this day.
After soaring to fame as one of the founders of Paypal, he took a seat on the board of a small dot com startup when he made an angel investment of $500,000. This company was called Facebook, and as the first outsider investor, Thiel helped spike the company’s value to roughly $4.9 million.
His predictions have shaken the world of technology
Today, Thiel is again making headlines, but it seems to be for slightly different reasons. Rather than helping an influential technology giant grow, he is predicting that its age of innovation may be over. Has Apple finally peaked? Thiel certainly seems to thinks so. Apple’s complicated road to success has long been a favorite among Americas, but Thiel is convinced that their long line of innovative products is indeed at an end.
The release of the first generation iPhone took the world by storm, completely redefining the way that we saw cell phones. In the years that followed, Apple introduced cutting-edge technology that never failed to impress users and critics across the globe.
When Steve Jobs passed away, people began to wonder what would become of the company, but Tim Cook stepped into the former CEO’s shoes and kept things moving in a generally positive direction.
Thiel doesn’t blame Cook for the end of Apple’s golden age. He just doesn’t see any possibility of Apple being able to improve on their products. “it's not an area where there will be any more innovation” he stated in a recent interview.
What is in store for Apple?
Is Thiel correct in his theory? Only time will tell. One thing that we do know is that Peter Thiel has a proven track record for making good decisions when it comes matters involving tech companies, especially when money is concerned.
He was certainly correct when he decided that an app like Paypal was exactly what the market needed and again when he decided that a little tech startup called Facebook would be a good investment. Is its current product line is really as good as it’s going to get for Apple?
The notion is a sad one, but it’s not hard to see where Thiel is coming from in his thinking. 2016 showed some of the company’s lowest numbers in many years, which were not helped by the embarrassingly low performance of the Apple Watch, which did not prove to be as innovative or popular as Cook and his fellows had hoped. As of now, Apple has not issued an immediate response to Thiel’s statements.
