PayPal was founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, Elon Musk in 1998.

Is PayPal publicly traded?

Yes — PayPal trades on NASDAQ under the ticker PYPL.

Where is PayPal headquartered?

PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, US.

PayPal

NASDAQ: PYPL

San Jose, US · Founded 1998 · Public

PayPal is the payments company that came out of the March 2000 merger of Confinity — founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery to beam money between Palm Pilots — and Elon Musk's online bank X.com. It took the PayPal name in 2001, went public in February 2002, and eBay acquired it that October for $1.5 billion. eBay spun it back out as an independent public company in 2015. Its early team became the most-cited alumni network in technology, the so-called PayPal Mafia, which went on to found Tesla, SpaceX, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Palantir and Affirm.

Founders & leadership

PayPal was founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Elon Musk.

Max Levchin in 𝕏Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer1999–2002Co-founder of PayPal; founder, chairman & CEO of Affirm; partner at SciFi VC

Peter Thiel in 𝕏CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder1998–2002Co-founder & Partner at Founders Fund

Luke Nosek in 𝕏Co-founder, VP, Bus Dev, Marketing, Strategy1998–2002Co-founder of PayPal; co-founder of Gigafund

Ken Howery in 𝕏Co-founder, Founding CFO1998–2002Co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund

Elon Musk 𝕏Co-founder (X.com); CEO 20001999–2002Founder of SpaceX and xAI; CEO of Tesla

Alex Chrissin 𝕏President & CEO2023–2026Angel investor

Reid Hoffman in 𝕏Executive Vice-President2000–2002Co-founder of LinkedIn; Partner at Greylock

Founder mafia

The PayPal mafia →

48 people who came through PayPal went on to found or lead other companies.

Peter ThielCo-founder & CEOFounded Palantir Reid HoffmanBoard member from 1998; Executive Vice PresidentFounded LinkedIn +2 Joe LonsdaleIntern, FinanceFounded Opto +3 Elon MuskCo-founder (X.com); CEO 2000Founded Tesla +5 Max LevchinCo-founder & CTOFounded Affirm Kanishk ParasharManager, Software DevelopmentFounded Powder +1 David MarcusVice President / GM, MobileFounded Lightspark Tomer BarelSVP, Global Chief Risk and Data OfficerFounded Lightspark Becky FlintBuilt & Roll out Product Portfolio ManagementFounded Dragonboat Emad HasanAnalytics Product ManagerFounded Retina AI George RuanVP - HoneyFounded Open Presence Jeremy JonkerSenior Vice President, Head of Consumer In-Store and Digital CommerceFounded Infinity Ventures

+ 36 more

Frequently asked questions

What does PayPal do?: PayPal is the payments company that came out of the March 2000 merger of Confinity — founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery to beam money between Palm Pilots — and Elon Musk's online bank X.com. It took the PayPal name in 2001, went public in February 2002, and eBay acquired it that October for $1.5 billion. eBay spun it back out as an independent public company in 2015. Its early team became the most-cited alumni network in technology, the so-called PayPal Mafia, which went on to found Tesla, SpaceX, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Palantir and Affirm.
Who founded PayPal?: PayPal was founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, Elon Musk in 1998.
Is PayPal publicly traded?: Yes — PayPal trades on NASDAQ under the ticker PYPL.
Where is PayPal headquartered?: PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, US.