Venture capitalist Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with Silicon Valley's Y Combinator — and that comes as a surprise to some.
On Thursday, conservative social networking company Gab discovered a blog post quietly noting Thiel's absence from the startup accelerator.
Thiel has become a controversial figure in Silicon Valley thanks to his high-profile support in 2016 of then-candidate Donald Trump. Y Combinator President Sam Altman defended Thiel's status as a part-time partner at the company, writing, "As repugnant as Trump is to many of us, we are not going to fire someone over his or her support of a political candidate."
Gab, whose founder was kicked out of Y Combinator for violating its harassment policy, seems to speculate that Thiel was cut for political reasons. But that's likely not the case.
A source told BuzzFeed that Thiel's departure may have been simply due to the end of Y Combinator's part-time partner's program. Axios notes Thiel's Silicon Valley ties make it likely that he'll continue working with the incubator's startups.
