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Peter Thiel. Photo: AFP
Controversial Kiwi billionaire Peter Thiel is considering a permanent move to Aotearoa, telling podcaster Joe Rogan that he is being driven away by taxation in his home state of California.
Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and who became a New Zealand citizen in 2011, said he has "endless conversations" with friends about leaving the state.
He said its "confiscatory taxation" was a key factor turning him away from California.
"The extreme thing I keep saying is I can't decide whether to leave the state or the country," Thiel said, adding it was "tough" to choose a new home because much of the world was "doing so much worse" than the United States.
He said he needed to make only one, permanent, move and said the US state of Florida could be an option before Rogan suggested the central American country of Costa Rica and Thiel himself named New Zealand as a possibility.
His host then veered into discussing Australia, possibly betraying a geographical misunderstanding as he criticised what he said was Australia cracking down on online speech.
Peter Thiel's New Zealand ties
Thiel was born in Germany but moved to America when he was only a year old. He became a New Zealand citizen in 2011.
"I am happy to say categorically that I have found no other country that aligns more with my view of the future than New Zealand," Thiel wrote.
"It would give me great pride to let it be known that I am a New Zealand citizen."
In that year, Thiel revealed he was much more clued-in to New Zealand's place in the world than Joe Rogan - revealing he favoured Godzone over Australia.
"Australia is a sort of strange developed country where it's all about exporting commodities to China. Talented people in Australia don't really need to try that hard," he told the Herald.
"It seems like it's a plus, but I don't know if it is in the long term. I think New Zealand is more attractive on the tech side than Australia would be."
His citizenship became a minor national scandal in 2017 when the ombudsman revealed that the billionaire had only spent 12 days in the country, less than 1 percent of the usual criteria.
Thiel has also sought a passport in the tiny Mediterranean nation of Malta, with the New York Times reporting in 2022 that he was trying for his third passport from the island.
Lodge plans abandoned
Last month it was revealed that the tech billionaire appeared to have abandoned his plans to build a 330m-long luxury lodge overlooking Lake Wānaka.
Theil had envisaged a private residential estate set against mountains, covered by tussocks and shrubs.
The building would have accommodated up to 30 guests and supported between 15 and 30 staff.
Inspired by other luxury lodges in New Zealand, like Queenstown's Rosewood Matakauri Lodge, it was planned to feature 11 guest accommodation units, an owner's residence, a meditation building and a "back-of-house" facility.
The build had suffered a series of hurdles, including a rejected resource consent from the Queenstown Lakes District Council, and subsequent rejection of an appeal by the Environment Court.
The Otago Daily Times reported that the Environment Court had confirmed Thiel's company Second Star Ltd had not lodged an appeal to the High Court.
In an earlier decision, Environment Court Judge Prudence Steven said the proposed tree planting would not adequately screen the buildings from several public viewpoints on the nearby public track, and the landscape values of the area's outstanding natural landscape would not be protected.
Support for JD Vance
Thiel injected tens of millions of dollars into the senate campaign of JD Vance, the man just selected as Donald Trump's running mate in the upcoming US presidential elections.
Thiel has been officially affiliated with the Republican Party since 2017, the same year he hired the 32-year-old Vance to work at his venture capital firm.
Thiel then went on to be a major financial backer for Vance's 2022 tilt as the Republican candidate for the Senate.
According to CBS, Thiel poured US$15 million ($24.7m) into Vance's 2022 campaign as well as nurturing his political rise. He also helped him win a closely contested seat in the GOP primary.
CBS also reported Thiel donated at least $200,000 to Vance for other campaigns.
Thiel began his official affiliation with the Republican Party in 2017, when he served on Trump's transition team. He was an early backer of the outsider candidate.
The New York Times reported Thiel was also the one who first took Vance into Trump's Mar-a-Lago office in 2021.
Vance told Catholic journal The Lamp Magazine that he had seen a talk Thiel had given at Yale University. He called it one of his "most significant" moments.
- This story was originally published on NZ Herald
