Peter Thiel believes every entrepreneur's goal should be to build a monopoly, ‘one-of-a-kind company' has no competition

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel believes that every entrepreneur's goal should be to build a monopoly company. Adding that founders who build a ‘one-of-a-kind’ company, that's doing something different, can ensure success.

At the 2014-2015 Authors@Wharton Speaker Series on 1 October 2014, Peter Thiel spoke to students and staff of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and discussed his book ‘Zero to One: Notes on Starts Ups or How to Build the Future’.

According to the venture capitalist, competition and capitalism are antonyms and in order to succeed, a business needs to fulfil monopoly role in its sector.

Peter Thiel: ‘A bad type of business is super competitive’

The billionaire started-off saying that the “most important distinction” in business that people don't talk about enough is that there are two kinds of companies in this world. “They're companies that are competitive and there are companies that have monopolies. If you're a one-of-a-kind company, a happy company that's doing something different. You are a monopoly. It should be the goal of every founder and entrepreneur to try to build a monopoly business,” he stated.

Giving an example of a bad business to invest in, Thiel said that nobody makes money with a super competitive venture like opening a restaurant, but Silicon Valley tech companies are on the other end of the spectrum. He explained: “The example of a fantastic monopoly business I give is Google, which basically has had no competition in search since 2002, when it definitively distanced itself from Microsoft and Yahoo. And it's making enormous profits for the dozen years or so ever since.”

Capitalism and competition are antonyms, believes Peter Thiel

The Paypal and Palantir co-founder further said that while most people believe that capitalism and competition are synonyms, he thinks they are antonyms.

“I believe that a capitalist someone who's in a business of accumulating capital. (But) a world of perfect competition, is a world where all the profits are competed away… And so, you want to be in the monopoly. You do not want to be in the in the world of competition.”

WATCH: Peter Thiel believes capitalism and competition are antonyms

Nvidia ‘uncomfortably close to’ dotcom bubble situation, feels Peter Thiel

Speaking at the All-in Summit in September 2024, Peter Thiel warned investors that despite its blockbuster performance on Wall Street, Nvidia stocks may no longer be a good bargain. “Maybe a year ago or two years ago, Nvidia would have been a good buy. Now everyone knows they’re making too much money and everyone’s trying to copy them,” he reportedly said.

Thiel compared the rise of Jensen Huang's company to the “dotcom” bubble, adding that the current climate feels “uncomfortably close to 1999.”

Last year, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) filings showed that as of September 2025 end, Peter Thiel's hedge fund Thiel Macro had sold its entire $100 million worth stake in the artificial intelligence chipmaker, as per a Reuters report. The move spiked anxiety over an AI bubble burst.

The filing further showed that the fund's key holdings included iPhone maker Apple, software leader Microsoft, and Elon Musk-led Tesla, it added.